Never Strikes Twice
by EX3451
Summary: When the Titans are about to meet their (embarrassing) ends at the hands of Dr. Light, they are saved by a boy around their age named Strike. Through his telepathy, he accidentally learns everything about the Titans, and some decide to trust him. How will Strike change their lives? And why was he even there in the first place? BBRae RobStar. 'Chapter 5- Blast From The Past' is up!
1. Chapter 1- Meeting Strike

Alright, I'll tell you now, this will be a long story. It will focus on all the Titans and yes, one of the main characters will be my OC. Even so, I hope you enjoy. This will be my third story overall, and I hope that it will get better as time goes by.

By the way: _'These are thoughts'_

**Disclaimer: I don't know why people hate OCs so much. I mean, they're the only things you can own when writing these stories, because no one, myself included, on this site likely owns Teen Titans.**

**XxX**

"Titans, GO!"

The battle cry rang out across the street, reaching the ears of the old man on the other side. Said old man looked up, and smirked.

"Ah, the Teen Titans. This time, when I am finished with you it will be lights out! Permanently."

The threat made its way across the street, reaching the ears of the youths on the other side. Said youths all showed signs of great amusement.

"You? Y-You? Come on man, thats hilarious!" Cyborg managed to giggle out.

"I'm pretty sure you still need a night-light when you go to bed." Raven said, a ghost of a smile playing across her face.

"Dude, the only one that you would beat in the villain game would be Control Freak or someone." Beast Boy chortled.

Dr. Lights eyes narrowed. "Be that as it may, it wont change the fact that I shall be guiding you to the light in a few moments."

Robin managed to speak through his laughter. "Titans, please, just go before he makes any more puns."

The Titans managed to stop their laughter and get into battle stances. Starfire and Beast Boy, in hummingbird form, took to the skies, whilst back on the ground, Cyborg had him arm turned into his signature sonic cannon. Robin had drawn a birdarang, and Raven had decided to pick up a car with her powers.

Dr. Light smirked again. _'Fools. They have no idea that they have no hope of beating me.'_

The truth was that, no matter how many times he would make a stupid mistake or be beaten, Arthur Light was not a stupid man. It had taken his genius level intellect to build his light suit, and it had been even harder to make it work. He had decided on a life of crime. There would be far more money in that lifestyle than that of a heroes. But the very first time he had tried anything, he had encountered the Teen Titans. He had made quick work of them, before angering the demonic one. That was not an experience that he would soon forget. But it got him thinking. Maybe he couldn't beat them now. But the more they fought him the more he could learn.

Dr. Light couldn't help the smirk that spread across his face at the sight before him. _'They don't realise that they used this tactic against me the fifth time we fought?' _Maybe this would be easier than he thought. The fact that they considered him nothing more than a nuisance was just the opening he needed. He would take them out quickly. There would be no need for honour. Villains had no need for honour, merely results.

Dr. Light wasted no time erecting a shied between himself and the torrent of starbolts flying directly at him from the sky. He then sidestepped Robin's airborne birdarang before hastily ducking underneath the blue beam of sound fired from Cyborg. He was almost hit by the car that was thrown at him from the dark empath, but managed to jump over it with centimeters to spare. He landed with a slight grunt, before pulling out his light whip and snapping it backwards, wrapping it around the neck of the unsuspecting changeling, who had been charging at him as a ram the entire time.

Beast Boy changed back to human and struggled to free himself. "Dude! Let me goo-oo-ooo-oo!"

Dr. Light had swung Beast Boy, by the neck, with his whip at a dangerous velocity right into the group of teens standing in front oh him, smiling at the loud 'CRACK' sound that occurred when the green boy connected to the Gothic girl. Raven and Beast Boy, now freed from the whip, flew across the street, slamming into one of the buildings, before falling three stories all the way to the ground. As soon as they connected with the groud, they both fell into unconsciousness.

Dr. Light smiled again. _'2 down, 3 to go.'_

Before the remaining Titans could even blink, Starfire was encased in a glowing sphere, whilst a small disc was planted on Cyborg's metal chest. The small disc turned out to be a rather strong taser, its timer running out at the same time as the spheres. Strong electrical currents ran through both of their bodies, before they both slumped against the ground, the sphere around Starfire disappearing.

Robin was dumbfounded. In under ten seconds, Dr. Light, _Dr. frigging Light _had managed to take down his entire team. This wasn't right. By now the man should have been asking to go to jail or, if he was having a good day, cracking another light pun right before begging for incarceration. Robin didn't have time to ponder these changes, however, because Dr. Light had suddenly appeared right in front of him, thrusting his fist right into the Titan's leaders stomach.

Dr. Light smirked. _'Good. Even untested, the modifications for light speed on this suit were spot on. I'll celebrate that later.'_

Robin hunched over in pain. Not even Slade had ever managed to hit him this hard. The pain in his stomach was soon exchanged for a massive headache and a lot more neck pain as Dr. Light's foot made contact with Robin's face. The kick sent him flying backwards, landing roughly in the street. He landed as all the other Titans woke up, except for Beast Boy. Starfire and Raven both opened their eyes with slight groans, and Cyborg's cybernetic parts glowed a faint blue as his human eye opened. Try as they might, though, none of them could move.

Dr. Light was almost in hysterics. His most hated enemies were lying in the street at his feet. He would finally be able to do it. He would kill the Teen Titans and would take his rightful place at the head of the villainous underworld. His laughter was interrupted, however, when a large, green hairy fist slammed right into the back of his head.

Whilst Dr. Light had been busy laughing uncontrollably, Beast Boy had managed to regain consciousness, morph into a gorilla, and king hit him. Even though the armour on the back of his head had absorbed most of the blow, Dr. Light was sent directly to the ground from the sudden attack, deftly landing on his hands and pushing himself back up to his feet, right in front of the green changeling. Without missing a beat, he tapped a button on his arm, and a hidden compartment appeared in the armour on his chest. Reaching inside, Dr. Light pulled out a small ring, which expanded into a collar similar to the one that Soto had once used against Beast Boy.

Dr. Light ducked both of the large hands swinging at him, flinging the collar. It locked on to Beast Boy's neck with a loud 'CLICK' and without hesitation started electrocuting him relentlessly. The green shape-shifter roared in pain, his form shrinking back into that of a humans. After struggling a bit more, his body finally gave out, crumpling to the ground.

The other Titans watched as Beast Boy fell to the ground, collar still around his neck. All of them were trying to move, to go to his aid, but they were all in too much pain. They couldn't even speak without a sharp jab of pain coursing through their bodies. Dr. Light seemed to find this all incredibly amusing.

"All the years that you have fought against me, you never expected that I was testing you, assessing your powers and your weaknesses. You never saw me as the genius that I was. I opted to hide that from you until I truly needed it. And now? Now I've beaten you. Now I've proven that I am superior. And I tell you it feels good. You know what? I should show you all how out-classed you really are," his eyes seemed to find Beast Boy unconscious form for the first time, and a sinister smirk spread across his face, "and I shall start with the green one."

Dr. Light started walking up to Beast Boy, energy gathering in his hands. The other Titans watched in horror as Dr. Light slowly raised his hands, savouring his victory. With an evil laugh, he sent the concentrated energy straight at Beast Boy. He was still unconscious, he wouldn't be able to dodge any time soon. Dr. Light watched on, trying to imagine the sound that Beast Boy would make when he was finally destroyed within the deadly light.

_'I never knew I was THAT evil. Meh, this is fun.'_

The blasts connected, and the massive explosion that followed was heard throughout the entire city. Not being able to raise their arms, the other Titans closed their eyes as chunks of pavement whistled through the air like missiles, leaving bruises and cuts where ever they hit.

Dr. Light's armour absorbed the damage from the brunt of the explosion, his eyes never leaving the huge cloud of dust that had been kicked up. The cloud started to clear as the Titans all opened their eyes, and what they saw was more horrifying then they would have thought.

Beast Boy was gone. Literally gone. As in there was the crater, there was all the damage that had been done, and there was Beast Boy's bod- wait nope thats not there.

Dr. Light was more confused than anything else. He hadn't thought that the beam would be that deadly, and even so there should have been a green puddle or something. But seeing as none of the pavement had been melted, then that should mean that Beast Boy would have still been there, just in a few more pieces. Shrugging with an "Oh well," he turned back to the other Titans, intent on finishing the job, only to see something quite peculiar.

Beast Boy was lying near the other Titans, still fully unconscious. Even though he was lying right there in between all of them, no one had seen Beast Boy move. All the Titans had seen their friend get hit by the beam. At least they thought they did. Dr. Light straightened up, and fired once again at the green changeling. There was no way that he was going to let his greatest victory be spoiled by a foolish side show magician trick.

The lethal attack hit the street right where Beast Boy was laying, only for him to appear, still unconscious, a few meters from Cyborg. Blast! Right next to Dr. Light. Blast! Leaning up against a building.

The other Titans were more confused than Dr. Light. Beast Boy could never teleport before. Was this a new power, or one that he just never told anyone about? And how was he doing it without being conscious? They were pulled from their musings, however, when Dr. Light started shooting at all of them.

Dr. Light was furious. He was about to win, and suddenly his opponent was dodging him in his sleep? This was ridiculous. _'If I can't hit the boy, then his friends will be first in his place.'_ With that, he turned his shots on the other Titans, choosing Starfire first.

All of the Titans watched as the bubbles of light flew at Starfire. None of them could move, only keep their eyes open as Starfire's imminent death sailed through the air, glowing cheerfully. Starfire closed her eyes at the same time as Robin finally found his voice.

"St... Star... fire..." the pain in Robin's body almost made it shut down, but Robin forced himself through the pain, staring at Starfire, a single tear gliding down his face.

_'She's going to die. She's going to die and all I can do is lie here and watch. I'll never get to tell her. She'll never get to hear those 's going to die and I never got to tell her how I really fe... whats that?_

Everything seemed to be in slow motion. The energy blast was still sailing through the air, still heading towards Starfire. From the direction that Beast Boy had just appeared, a gold trail was seemingly appearing out of thin air. It headed rapidly towards Starfire, easily overtaking the attack. When it was right next to Starfire, it slowed down, and seemed to bend over. It then proceeded out of the firing line, carrying Starfire along with it. The laser hit the ground right where Starfire had just been, and snapped Robin out of his trance. His mind was still working double time.

_'Alright, so apparently we have some help, and whoever they are has already saved Beast Boy and Starfire. I'm going to have to thank them later if I get the chance. But who are they? KF? No, his costume leaves different colours. Mas y Menos? No, they would have called first and no one is being taunted in Spanish.'_

Robin felt himself be hoisted up, and blinding white light exploded in his field of vision. Blinking lethargically, he realised that he must have been the next in the cross-hairs, and so had been saved. He took the opportunity to look at his saviour. Maybe now that he was moving at the same speed he could catch a glimpse.

Robin found himself being carried away from the miniature explosion by a teenage boy around his own age and height. He wore what looked like a pitch black spandex suit. His hair was shoulder length, faintly glowing gold. His eyes were hidden behind bright yellow visor glasses (A/N: Think Geordi La Forge from Star Trek). Swiveling his eyes down, Robin saw that he had twin lightning bolts running from his hips down to his shoes. He also noted what looked liked sparks flying from the ground with every step taken. Robin stopped his observation when he felt himself get lowered to the ground gently, being placed a few meters away from Starfire. Before the mystery boy could sprint away to pick up Raven, Robin managed to mutter a quiet "Thank you" into his ear. Flashing a brief smile, the boy ran forth, sweeping Raven quickly into his arms, placing her a few meters from Robin.

Dr. Light was getting severely peeved. Now _all _of these annoying brats could teleport? He experimentally threw a sphere of energy at Cyborg, only for the mechanical teen to briefly disappear and then re-appear alongside his wounded friends. Something that sounded rather delicate snapped in Dr. Light's brain.

_'They asked for it.'_

Now, what is 'it', you ask? Well, 'it' was an incredibly volatile and dangerous upgrade that had recently been added to the light suit. It would completely drain the suit of all it's power, but the beam was wide and could devastate entire cities. Which, if it was fired, would happen to Jump and all it's citizens. Re-directing every bit of power available to his chest piece, Dr. Light smirked viciously. Teleportation or not, nothing in a three mile radius could escape from the doomsday cannon. This was checkmate, he was sure of it.

The Titans were all now fully conscious, except for Beast Boy. The green teen seemed to have been attacked more maliciously than the others, thin streams of blood slowly making their way down his face. Raven looked over at his still form, her eyes lingering on the look of pain etched into his face. She could feel Rage screaming in her head, but even if Raven wanted to let her out movement was out of the question. It was just too painful. A thought crossed her mind out of the blue.

_'Why am I so angry over Beast Boy being hurt?'_

'You're either blind, stupid or in denial, I can't tell which.'

Raven would have jumped, but that would require moving, and moving was not something that was allowed right now. The voice that had just sounded in her head had not belonged to any of her emoticlones. It was unmistakably male, and unknown. Raven tried to think back a message, but heard another voice from within her head.

_'Yo, who the hell are you and why are you in my head?'_

Cyborg.

_'This voice does not sound like any of our other friends.'_

Starfire.

_'Hey! Don't touch anything up there!'_

Robin.

_'Chargy chargy... Ooops! I left the stove on!'_

Dr. Light?

_'Heh, went to far. Sorry about that.' _The unknown voice again. Raven sighed in her head, before directing her thoughts outwards again.

_'How have you linked all of our minds up?'_

_'Not important, but its only temporary. I had hoped to not get in to any fights whilst in the big city, but oh well. I'll make this quick, we don't have much time. See the crazy guy?'_

The Titans all said 'yes', some sounding more exasperated than others. _'Right now he's charging a super beam. He lets that thing go and it's curtains for the city._

The Titans were all surprised. Sure, they knew Dr. Light was crazy, and after today, deadly. But never had he threatened the entire city just to get rid of asked the question that they all wanted to. _'So what do we do?'_

_'Trust me.'_

Their various thoughts of protest were all drowned out by Dr. Light's voice. It boomed out to the Titans, and they couldn't help but feel the slightest bit scared. Even Raven felt a twinge of fear. Never had death faced them so... forcefully. Except maybe Trigon. Yeah, definitely except Trigon.

"This has been lovely, but now we must end this. Ta ta Titans, I hope we meet in the afterlife."

With a final evil chuckle, Dr. Light set off his devastating attack, white beams shooting out in every direction.

Suddenly, a large bolt of lightning zipped through the sky, straight towards Dr. Light. A few meters from the ground, it split into many different tendrils of electricity, each one burying themselves into the ground. The white beams slammed into the lightning, but instead of a massive explosion like expected, the beams seemed to disappear inside of the lightning. The lightning, in turn, let off a brighter yellow glow, before receding completely. Not a single bit of damage had been done to either the street or the Titans, who had been sitting outside of the protective circle of lightning.

Dr. Light blinked, his mind drawing a complete blank as to what just happened. He had indeed fired his weapon, because his suit was now out of power. All it would be useful for now would be dead weight. He noted both the fact that the Titans were completely unharmed by his laser and that the city was untouched. He decided that his best course of action would be to flee, until three bolts of lightning hit the street around him, spreading across the ground and through the air to form a cage made from pure electricity. From the shadows of an alley beside the street, a lone figure marched out, slowly making his way right in front of the cage. From behind his visor, the boy seemed to concentrate, before breaking out into a fit of laughs.

"Oh, wow, you are pathetic!" He giggled, and the Titans immediately recognised his voice as the one from their heads. "You thought that with a couple of ditzy little upgrades and a suicidal cannon that you could take out the Teen Titans?! Oh man, that was a good laugh."

He stopped chuckling and whipped around to face Dr. Light once again, who was beginning to look quite nervous.

"You what!?" He shouted, before abruptly turning back to the Titans. Pointing a single finger to the sky, the sound of thunder rumbling could be heard. From behind the clouds, which none of the people present had noticed roll in, a bolt of pink lightning appeared, speeding towards the ground. Right before making contact, it split in to five smaller bolts, each one flying right towards one of the downed Titans. The lightning connected, and for a second each Titan was horrified, until it felt like a massive weight had been lifted from their chests.

Turning back to Dr. Light, the cage faded away to nothingness. For a brief second, Dr. Light considered running, until he felt himself get hoisted off the ground by a pair of hands on his armour. Looking down, he came face to visor with the as of yet unidentified hero. The **very **pissed off unidentified hero.

"You coward..." He breathed. Dr. Light tried to open his mouth to speak, but found that he couldn't. He had never been so afraid in his life, except maybe when he was pulled into Raven's cloak. Something about this person seemed oddly similar, but completely different at the same time. For whatever reason, he had been reminded of something he had seen whilst in that cloak, but stopped thinking about it when he heard faint thud from in front of him. Cautiously, he peered over the boy's shoulder, to see that the Titans were all passed out on the ground. They had tried standing up, but they didn't get too far.

"What...W-What did you do to them?" He almost squeaked, finally finding his voice. The boy gave him a sinister grin, showing more teeth than Dr. Light was sure should have been in a human mouth.

"That was a hug compared to what I'm going to do to you."

"Jail... please?"

**XxX**

Raven slowly woke up, her eyes opening with less vigor than they normally did. Sitting up, she stretched her back and yawned. She hadn't known when or where she had fallen asleep, but she could still feel small stabs of pain with every movement. Wincing slightly, she moved to get up, but a hand gripped her shoulder lightly and pushed her back down.

"Not yet, you're still hurt."

The familiar voice hit her ears, and Raven turned her head to see the exact same boy who had come to their aid. For the first time, she realised that she was in the med bay, her teammates in beds around her. Investigating each one, her eyes fell on Beast Boy last. Watching as his chest rose up and down, Raven suddenly remembered the dreams she had been having whilst she was unconscious, and her face turned bright red.

"I never knew you could kiss like that." Came the voice of the boy again. Raven felt like dying on the spot. He had seen her dreams. She was about to retort when he continued tauntingly.

"And I never would have guessed that Beast Boy could make you bend like th-mmph!"

Raven sighed, her black magic having successfully shut the boy up. Slowly raising herself from where she lay, she turned to face the boy. His face, despite the black tape covering his mouth, looked more or less passive. Fighting the blush on her cheeks, she decided to ask the obvious question first.

"Who are you?" Raven demanded, her monotone voice slicing through the air. The boy merely pointed at his mouth, which was still covered with black magic, and raised an eyebrow. Sighing, Raven removed the magic from his mouth and looked at him expectantly.

"Well, it's been so long that I can't even remember my name, but you can call me Strike."

Raven nodded slowly. Everything she seemed to be doing lately was slow. An idea was forming in her mind of who this boy was, though even to her it sounded ridiculous. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that her demon side was giving her.

"Alright, Strike. How did you see my dreams?" She asked, trying to keep the embarrassment and suspicion out of her voice.

"Telepathy. I'm sorry, I can't turn it off!" He added quickly, seeing Raven's eyes spark with anger. Raven calmed down. She had already figured out that he was a telepath from the fight, but the fact that he couldn't negate it was interesting. Raven inwardly smirked, ticking a mental box on her checklist.

"What happened with Dr. Light?"

Strike looked away, gathering his thoughts. When he turned back to Raven, he had a serious look on his face.

"Last night he managed to poison all of you. Infect you all with tetrodotoxin. It was a tiny amount, but enough to slow you down so that he was a deadly threat. He made some modifications to his armour and tried to kill you all, but when I managed to move you all out of harms way he got angry and decided to take the city down with us. Too bad he didn't know that I was there, and I can absorb energy."

Raven frowned. That wasn't on her checklist. Her frown disappeared as she asked her next question.

"What about after the fight?"

"I...er...talked to him and turned him in."

Raven rolled her eyes. Somehow she doubted that. Another question popped in to her head, and seeing as she had been met with no resistance she was confident he would answer this one.

"How did you get rid of the poison?"

Strike seemed to think it over, before sighing and looking up at Raven's face. "I healed all of you enough to destroy it. My people have the ability to heal others."

Raven smirked. There was the final thing on checklist. "I knew it."

"I know you did."

"Don't try to den- wait what?"

"Telepath, remember?"

"Right. But what happened to your wi-"

Strike cut her off with a sad shake of his head, then gestured to the slumbering Titans. "I'm going to heal them completely. You're already awake, so there is nothing more I can do for you. I didn't come here to fight crime or make friends."

Raven looked at him curiously. "Then why did you come here?"

Strike raised his fist to the air, and from nowhere wind started picking up. Looking back at her, he replied with "You'll see," right before a bolt of pink lightning appeared through the ceiling. Hitting his fist directly, Strike's hair began to raise itself and flow freely, all while glowing a shade of pink. Raven looked on, unsure of what she was seeing.

"What are you doing?"

Looking over his shoulder, Strike replied simply with "charging," before going back to work. The lightning intensified, and Raven was surprised to see that it wasn't making a mark on the roof as it was coming in. She soon realised why.

_'Right, magic.'_

Looking back at Strike, Raven's brow furrowed.

_'His people don't normally have this kind of power.'_

_'Consider me the exception.'_

Raven jumped at the voice in her head. Looking back up, she saw that Strike hadn't even turned to face her. Sighing, Raven sat down on her bed. She briefly wondered about the strange boy in front of her, before she found her thoughts moving on to Beast Boy. That would happen a lot. Reading a book? Bam! Beast Boy. Meditating? Bam! Beast Boy. Sleeping? Bam!...squeak...squeak...moan...

_'Bad Raven!' _She mentally scolded herself, _'No thinking about that!'_

Hearing a laugh, Raven looked up to see Strike's face. He seemed to be enjoying himself greatly at the moment, the lightning still streaming into his body. A quick question popped into her head and she looked away, trying to think of how to word it. Eventually, she looked back at Strike, who simply raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to say something. Raven tried to follow her own plan, but ended up blurting it out instead.

"Why are you trusting us like this?"

"Because I've seen all of your dreams. I've seen what drives all of you, what you all fear, who you all really are. I know all of you better than you know yourselves. And I know that I can trust you. What I don't get is why you're trusting me."

Raven didn't know what to say. She didn't exactly know why she trusted him, but she knew what he was, and that was enough. Before she could reply, Strike kept talking. "If you want I can let you try to kiss Beast Boy and see if that will wake him up?"

"Shut up."

**XxX**

Raven had watched in silence as Strike gathered power. Her mind was on overdrive, and she had no doubt that he could hear all of her thoughts.

_'Why DO I trust him? I shouldn't trust him, and my demon side is telling me to rip him to shreds. That's probably because of what he is, but still... he didn't do anything for me, nothing that the others hadn't already done before. And yet I trust him. I mean he saved me, but that doesn't count for anything does it?'_

"You are so far in denial that your thoughts are giving me a headache."

Raven started. She had been so deep in thought that she didn't even realise that the lightning had disappeared. Looking up from her seat on the bed, Strike was staring back at her. He had taken his visor off, and his eyes, along with his hair were now glowing a shade of pink that both Kole and Jinx would have been envious of. Getting over her initial shock, Raven finally registered his words.

"Denial? What are you talking about?"

Strike shook his head. "Judging from all of their thoughts, you're supposed to be the smart one. Maybe you should listen to your emotions a bit more."

Raven scowled. She didn't like when people held information from her, especially when it was about herself. Opening her mouth to speak, she was cut off by Strike.

"Maybe you should visit Nevermore some time, it would be better to hear it there. I still don't know how you haven't figured it out yet. Now step back."

Raven complied, muttering darkly under her breath. She had decided that she didn't like this boy, as much as she trusted him against her better judgement. She was pulled out of her grumbling by the tingling tune of her communicator. Pulling it out of her pocket and throwing it open, she saw that the one calling her was Argent.

Raven felt herself smile slightly. She liked Argent. It wasn't just because they were similar in many ways, but ever since the whole Brotherhood incident when they had met, they had become quite good friends. They had even gone out to brunch a few times, against Raven's wishes, of course.

"Hello Argent."

"Hi, love. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine."

"That's good to hear."

"Yes."

"So, how's the rest of your team?"

"Argent, you didn't just call to be social, did you?"

"What, is that a problem?"

Raven raised an eyebrow, and on screen Argent laughed.

"You're right, you're right. I actually called because I have a bit of a dilemma. If I wanted to be social I would have called that cutie Beast Boy."

Raven felt a strange stab in her stomach at the mention of Beast Boy. For some reason, she didn't like how Argent referred to him. Stowing those feelings to examine later, Raven looked back to the tiny screen.

"So, are you going to tell me or are you going to drool over my teammates?"

"Can I do both?"

"Argent..."

"Alright, alright. I'll tell you, but I think it would be a good idea for all of your team to be there to hear it."

"If thats the case, why didn't you call Robin?"

"Well, he's so...boring. Besides, I like talking to you better."

Off-screen, Strike called out, "They're a tiny bit busy right now!"

"Raven, who was that?"

"That wa-" She was cut off by Strike, who shoved his head in front of the screen, slapping Raven across the face with his glowing pink hair.

"I'm Strike. Argent, correct?"

"You got it, cutie. When did you meet the Titans?"

"I haven't really met any of the Titans except Raven and now you."

"Ooohhh, Raven, you didn't tell me that I was interrupting a date!"

"Hey, I don't min-" Strike's entire body became encased in black magic, and he rocketed offscreen. Argent winced as she heard the loud 'THUD' and laughed when she heard the quick "I'm OK!" Raven picked her communicator up again, still glaring in the direction that she had sent Strike. Strike's voice came from the same direction, and sounded slightly strained.

"I think...we should just...be friends."

"I think acquaintance is pushing it too far." Raven countered ominously. She then turned back to the still giggling Argent.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing. So where is the rest of your team?"

"Raven," Strike called out, "I'm ready."

Raven looked over at him. He had a serious expression on his face again. Diverting her attention back to Argent, Raven muttered out a quick "one second," pushing a few buttons at the computer terminal. A television screen on the wall flickered to life, Argents face on it. Raven closed her communicator, and Argent took the opportunity to look through the room.

She looked over the various Titans, all unconsciously lying on their beds. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw the blood trails on Beast Boy's face. Strike stood, eyes closed, right in the center of the room, concentrating. There was one empty bed, which had been Ravens right before she had woken up.

"What...what happened to them?"

Strike cracked his eyes open slightly, looking at the screen. "Dr. Light." He said simply, closing his eyes again.

Argent raised her eyebrow. Dr. Light? Well, at least now she knew that she had a surprise for them. She opened her mouth to speak, but gave a sound that could only be described as a shriek when pink lightning erupted from Strike's hands, entering the bodies of all the unconscious Titans. Raven didn't even give a reaction beside raising her eyebrow in a curious manner. After all, she had been through this treatment before.

After about five seconds, Strike shut the lightning off and stepped back. On the beds, all the unconscious Titans slowly opened their eyes. Each of them got to their feet, except Beast Boy. Stretching and sighing slightly, all of them turned their attention towards Strike, who merely waved.

"Uhm," Cyborg started, "Who are you and what happened to the fight?"

Strike crossed his arms indignantly. "What, I bust my balls to heal you and all I get is 'Who are you?'"

Cyborg took a step back, but stopped when he heard a giggle from the direction of the wall. Turning around at the same time as the other Titans, Argent found that the entire room was now looking at her, minus one.

"Hi guys!"

"Uh, hey."

"Hi Argent."

"FRIEND!"

Argent winced at the incredibly loud voice, before remembering why she was calling.

"Well, now that you're all here I suppose I should sa- hey, what's up with Beast Boy?"

Following Argent's gaze, all the Titans looked over at Beast Boy. He was still on the bed, not having moved an inch. His hands were desperately tugging at his neck, and tears were flowing down his face freely.

Within a heartbeat, all the Titans were at his bed, Argent watching with concern from the screen. Beast Boy had both of his hands around the collar that was still on his neck. His eyes were wide and his face was deathly pale. He was shaking so violently that the other Titans could see the bed moving.

"BB!? BB, speak to me!" Cyborg tried. Beast Boy looked up at him, his eyes giving off the 'terrified child' vibe.

"G-G-Get it off! Get it off me, please!" Beast Boy sobbed, his voice cracking. The other Titans were bewildered. Never had they seen Beast Boy so...scared. Raven could sense the terror coming off of him in waves.

"Friend? Get what off of you?" Starfire asked hesitantly. Beast Boy looked at her, as if trying to convey a mental message.

"The c-c-c-c..."

Standing off to the side, Strike was thinking hard. Something had caused this change, but if it was mental then he would have sensed it, much like Raven could of as well. Suddenly, his eyes grew wide and he snapped his fingers.

"The collar!" He shouted. "Get that collar off him, now!"

Without missing a beat, Cyborg reached for Beast Boy's neck, effectively ripping the collar in two with a single tug. It wasn't that strong of a collar, and Cyborg used that design flaw to crumple the two pieces into tiny balls.

Beast Boy, realising he had been freed, leapt off the bed at breakneck speed. He moved so quickly that the Titans had trouble keeping track of him. He didn't know where he was heading, but he needed to get away. Abruptly switching direction, Beast Boy started sprinting for the door, only to find his path blocked.

Without thinking, Raven quickly opened up a portal and stepped in, re-appearing right in front of the door. She had stepped out right in front of Beast Boy, and he didn't have the chance to slow down. Slamming directly into Raven, both of them were sent sprawling to the ground. Scrambling to his feet, Beast Boy once again tried for the door, but Raven levitated in front of him, blocking his way again. Beast Boy attempted to duck underneath her, but she descended faster than he did and quickly caught the shape-shifter into a hug.

Raven didn't know why she had just wrapped her arms around Beast Boy's neck, but right at that moment she felt as though she didn't really need a reason. Beast Boy stopped dead, his eyes somehow growing even wider. Behind the two, the other Titans and Strike watched from afar. Four of them were incredibly confused whilst the remaining one was incredibly amused. Raven wasn't a hugger, but to her holding on to Beast Boy seemed to feel right.

After a little while, Beast Boy wrapped his arms around Raven's waist, returning her hug. His head found it's way to her shoulder, and a few tears escaped his eyes. He finally spoke, though his voice was quaking.

"I...I don't li-like collars."

That being said, Beast Boy broke down into tears again, his head still on Raven's shoulder. Raven, unsure how to react, rubbed his back in what she hoped was a relaxing manner.

_'Maybe now would be a good time to take your leave?'_

Strike's voice echoed in her head, and Raven almost jumped. She had forgotten that they had an audience. Looking over at the other teenagers, who were all watching wide eyed, Raven spoke.

"We're going to go get some fresh air."

That being announced, Raven opened up another portal, swallowing herself and Beast Boy into the darkness. The room was left in silence, until Robin found his voice again.

"Argent, you said something about needing to show us something?"

"Huh? Oh, right! Well, I was on patrol this morning and...well...see for yourself."

Argent turned her communicator around, allowing the Titans and Strike to see the street in front of her.

**XxX**

**So Strike has saved the Titans. Who is he really and what does Raven's demon side have against him? Well, Raven seems to know. Also, why is Beast Boy so scared of collars?**

So here is the first chapter. I will say that a few parts took a while to write, but all in all I had quite a bit of fun with this. There will be a lot of chapters, and when I actually think of some ideas I'll write them. I already have the ending planned out, if that makes any difference. It doesn't, but still.

Feel free to drop a review. Tell me what you liked and what you hated. But, if you're just going to leave a review saying how much OC's suck then do me a favour and just leave the story. I enjoy getting and reading reviews, but the least you could do is leave some constructive criticism. Don't like Strike? **Tell me why.** Don't just type something like "OMG srtiek suks so b4d like lol". That ain't a review.

Chapter updates might be a little slow, but right now I'm in the middle of moving houses so I don't have a choice. I'll do my darnedest, how's that?

Also, bonus points if you can figure out what Strike is. I'm not sure if his race exists in the DC universe, but they do 'exist' in our world, and demons would hate them. I dropped in a few hints as well, well one to be exact.

I hope to get a new chapter up soon. As I said in my little rant type thing, feel free to leave a review. They're like happy drugs that your parents won't be sad that you take. Peace!

_**X**_


	2. Chapter 2- Trust Issues

Alright, second chapter. I think it's about time I gave Strike a reason for being at Titans Tower. Congratulations to all who guessed what Strike was, as well.

Just remember: _'These are thoughts'_

**Disclaimer: Strike is to me what Teen Titans is to DC.**

**XxX**

The Titans all gaped at the television screen. Dr. Light was lying on the ground, face down in quite an impressive crater. His armour was dented and scratched badly, and something about his face made the Titans think that the crater had been dug with it. For whatever reason, Strike stood off to the side, tapping his index fingers together and looking slightly guilty.

Robin pulled his jaw off the ground and addressed Argent hesitantly.

"Uh...what did you DO to him?"

Argent looked at Robin and raised her eyebrows.

"Me? Nuh uh love, I didn't do anything. I was just flying along, I heard screaming and next thing I know theres a big crater in the ground and an unconscious super villain right at the heart of it."

"But...that doesn't make sense." Cyborg started, unsure. "We were all knocked out, and the last thing I heard was threats..." he trailed off, and all eyes, electronic or not, found their way over to Strike.

Strike looked around, suddenly aware of the attention he was being payed. "What?" He asked innocently.

Robin raised a hand, finger pointed at Strike, to start interrogating him, when half of the television screen behind him switched to the afternoon news. Argent's face was forced to one half of the T.V whilst the other half displayed an image of Strike holding Dr. Light up by the front of his suit. Everyone turned their attention to the screen as a female reporter's voice was heard.

"...Footage that was taken earlier today, where an as of yet unnamed hero seems to be helping the Teen Titans. We apologise for the shakiness of this video, but from what we know it was taken from a mobile phone."

The footage started playing, and Strike winced when he heard his own voice.

_"That was a hug compared to what I'm going to do to you."_

Robin's eyes narrowed as he took in the scene. Cyborg was looking out of the corner of his eye at Strike. The menacing voice that he had just heard didn't sound like the boy who stood beside him now. Starfire was looking around, slightly confused. Someone was giving out hugs? Both Cyborg and Starfire then pulled their attention back to the screen as they heard Dr. Light's voice.

_"Jail... please?"_

On the other half of the T.V screen, Argent snorted with laughter into her hand. A quick glare from Robin quieted her down almost immediately, and the footage of the fight was suddenly paused. The female reporter's voice came back, except this time she sounded a little anxious.

"Parents, I advise that you get your children to leave the room before the next bit of footage plays."

Everyone's eyes widened, and found their way back to Strike yet again. He was standing still, smiling sheepishly and muttering curse words under his breath. Quickly, sounds of electricity surging came from the T.V and everyone turned their attention back to it hurriedly.

On screen, lightning was starting to surround Strike and Dr. Light. Grinning viciously, Strike began to float slightly off the ground, bringing a terrified Dr. Light with him. When they were a good foot off the ground, Strike began to rotate around, picking up speed rapidly. Before their eyes, a tornado began to pick up around the two on screen, Strike still visible. He was spinning faster and faster, Dr. Light's terrified and high pitched screams getting louder and softer as they spun. Eventually, the wind picked up so much that the inside of the tornado was completely obscured from view. For the next thirty seconds, nothing major happened. However, the footage paused again, and the female voice was back.

"We have included an arrow to help the viewers at home see what happened."

The footage then played again, and not a second later Dr. Light was ejected out of the tornado quite forcefully, screaming hysterically. As he sailed through the air, a bright yellow arrow appeared and followed him, all the way until he disappeared into the distance, a tiny star appearing where he had vanished. The tornado was still for a moment, before making it's way over to the Titans. Picking each of them up one by one, the tornado then took off across the water, back to Titans Tower.

Robin turned the news half of the television off, before he joined everyone in staring at Strike. He had backed up against the wall, holding his hands up defensively. A few seconds of silence passed, before Starfire broke it.

"Friend Argent, where are you currently?"

On screen, Argent shook her head, breaking herself out of her own staring.

"Uh, New Zealand."

Before anyone else could speak, Strike pointed at them all, shouting victoriously.

"HA! I only threw him HALFWAY around the world!"

"YOU THREW HIM HALFWAY AROUND THE WORLD!? WHAT THE HELL, MAN?!" Cyborg screamed, looking at Strike like he had grown an extra head.

Strike raised a finger to respond, but Robin beat him to it.

"Heroes don't throw people around the world!"

"Ah, but technically I am not a hero. I am more like a civilian with incredible powers."

Before Robin could start choking Strike, Starfire spoke up.

"Friends? I believe that there may be something that we are not seeing here."

"What do you mean, Star?" Robin asked.

"Perhaps it would be easier if I merely showed you?" Grabbing the remote, Starfire turned the television back on and rewound to the fight on the news. She pressed play, and they watched the exchange a second time. Right after Strike had thrown Dr. Light out of the tornado, however, Starfire hit pause.

"There! You see?"

"Uh, not really, Star."

Starfire rewound the footage, and played it again. This time, following her finger, the boys were able to see what Starfire had. Right after being thrown, thrusters had ignited on the bottom of Dr. Light's boots, and he had flown into the distance.

"I knew I didn't throw him that hard..." Strike muttered under his breath, though everyone heard him. Robin had had enough, and pointed an accusatory finger at Strike.

"Alright, that's enough. You may have saved us and we may be grateful, but as far as we know you're a threat. You could be working undercover for somebody and you've already proven with that little tornado stunt that you're dangerous. I want to know who you are."

Strike's sheepish smile had vanished, and in it's place was a slightly clenched jaw. "My name is Strike."

Robin's finger got closer to Strike's face. "I don't want a hero name, I want a civilian name."

Strike brushed Robin's finger away, and calmly flicked a bit of electricity at his head. It connected with Robin's hair, and the spikes fluffed out into quite the killer afro. Strike began advancing on Robin, who held his ground, though he looked slightly nervous.

"I don't see why I should trust you with my name when we've just met, when you still fail to trust your own team with yours!"

Robin patted his hair back into it's signature spikiness, glaring at the one who had messed it up. "As the leader of this team it is my duty to protect this city. I do not need people like you coming in here and getting in the way of that!"

"What, protecting the city means never telling your own family who's under the mask?"

"You know nothing about my reasons!"

"Sorry, Grayson, but I know a lot more than you realise!"

Robin backed away, eyes growing wide behind his mask. "How do you know my-"

"-Name?" Strike finished, his eyes and hair glowing slightly red. "Kind of hard not to when you cant even shut your damn telepathy off. I know everything about everyone on this team, and all it took was a ride through a tornado. I don't want to be here. I probably would never have come to your city if I didn't want to ask a massive favour from one of your team!"

Robin stood, rooted to the ground. He couldn't stop himself from gaping at the angry boy before him. Strike glared at him for a moment, before turning around and walking to the door. Right before he exited, he turned and addressed Robin once more. This time, he sounded almost sad.

"You have no reason to wear that mask in this tower, Robin. You've been through some tough times. Sure, everyone has. You haven't even been through the worst out of everyone in this room. I've seen what they've seen, experienced it through their eyes. You cover your eyes from the realities of this world, you wear your cape like a security blanket. You're not protecting anyone Robin, you're just lying to the people you care about the most every single day."

With that, Strike nodded to both Cyborg and Starfire and gave a brief wave to Argent, who was still watching everything from the wall. Walking through the door, he stopped when he was just in the corridor.

"I'm going to go grab something to eat. Don't worry, I know all the security codes." With that, he closed the door, leaving all the Titans within silent.

Robin kicked a bed and started muttering darkly under his breath. "I hate telepaths..." was all that was audible to the others.

Cyborg looked down at Robin, shaking his head slightly. "Man, he had a point, you know?"

Robin whipped his head up so quickly that for a brief moment everyone watching worried that he had hurt himself. "So, you're taking a strangers side?"

"Hey! I ain't taking anyones side! I'm just saying that you can't expect everything from him and give nothing in return!"

"He might be a threat for all we know! Like I said, he could be working for someone to find all our weaknesses!"

"So the grand plan included pulling our butts out of the firing line and wasting his own energy healing us up? If he was working for someone who wanted us gone then why did he save us?"

"I don't know, but I'm not going to trust him until I find out!"

"What are you being so paranoid for, man?"

"You know," Argent cut in, "You're both at fault here."

"How is this my fault?" Cyborg asked, crossing his arms.

"No, I mean Robin and Strike. Robin could have gotten off his high horse and spoken to Strike properly," Robin started protesting, but Argent ignored him. "And Strike could have responded a little less angrily."

Starfire spoke this time, her voice meek and uncertain. "Perhaps when you have both done the 'cooling off' you should both apologise?"

Robin looked at Starfire incredulously. Even SHE was telling him off? "What do I have to apologise for?"

"I believe that you were being critical of hippopotamuses?"

"You mean, 'being a hypocrite', love?" Argent asked from the wall.

"Yes, thank you friend." Turning her attention back to Robin, she continued, "I believe that you should apologise for being the hypocrite and that friend Strike should apologise also for the loss of his temper."

Robin raised an eyebrow. "Friend Strike?"

"Yes, friend. Did Cyborg not say that he did the pulling of our butts out of the fire? He saved us, therefore he is a friend."

Robin wanted to argue, but he couldn't. Not against Starfire. Sighing and grumbling, he marched out of the med bay, no doubt heading straight for the gym. Cyborg followed him with his eyes, before sighing and turning back to the rooms only other occupant. Noticing the stressed look on Starfire's face, he decided to intervene.

"He'll be fine, Star. He just needs to 'do the cooling off'." Cyborg said with a laugh.

Starfire's face brightened a considerable amount. "I know this, but I am still worried about him."

"Yeah, me too."

"Well, I must be excused, I need to go and find Silkie. It is time for his bath!" With that, Starfire flew out of the door, in search of her little _bumgorf_.

From the screen where she had been watching in relative silence, Argent suddenly let out a chuckle.

"They're quite the pair, eh?"

Cyborg rolled his human eye, smirking. "Yeah, they are."

"So when are they finally gonna hook up?"

"If they don't do it soon I'm going to force them to, it's getting painful watching them."

"That bad, huh?"

"You have noooo idea."

Argent and Cyborg both laughed a bit more, lost in their own thoughts. Eventually Argent addressed Cyborg once more.

"I should probably work on getting the good doctor here to a prison cell."

"Alright. See you 'round, Argent."

"Bye love."

Argent ended the transmission, and Cyborg walked through the door. Stepping out into the empty corridor, Cyborg once again chuckled at his own thoughts, before beginning the journey down to the garage. He needed to spend some quality time with his baby, after all.

**XxX**

A portal opened up on the roof of Titans Tower, Raven and Beast Boy stepping out. Neither of them had ended their embrace, but Beast Boy had managed to calm down enough to stop his tears. Raven kept him pressed up against her body, her mind on overdrive.

_'Why am I hugging him? Why am I enjoying hugging him? I'm Raven, I don't like hugging people. Maybe it was because of how scared he was. That must have been it. So why aren't I letting go now? And why does this feel nice? Argh, I'm going to have to visit Nevermore soon.'_

Raven was pulled from her thoughts by a loud sniff. Beast Boy seemed to have returned to normal, judging from the fact that his body was no longer shaking. She felt his arms loosen from around her waist and she complied, letting go of his neck. Beast Boy withdrew his arms completely and took a step back. Though his eyes were still moist, he had a small, genuine smile on his face.

"Thanks Rae." He said, his voice finally stable.

"Rae-ven." Raven said, though she didn't sound as irritated as she normally did. Beast Boy gave a small laugh, his smile still on his face. Sitting down on the edge of the roof, Beast Boy patted the spot next to him, looking directly at Raven. Rolling her eyes, Raven sat down, her legs hanging off the side of the building. They sat in silence for a few minutes, before Raven looked at Beast Boy.

"Beast Boy? Can I ask what happened down there?"

Beast Boy's smile disappeared, and his eyes glazed over slightly. Though he didn't say anything, Raven was assaulted with a barrage of negative emotions through her empathy. It was like a whirlwind, but Raven was able to sense anger, terror and resentment quite easily. She was beginning to regret asking, before Beast Boy finally spoke to her.

"Let's just say that I didn't have the best childhood, Rae."

Raven was surprised. She had always assumed Beast Boy had a good childhood. He was always joking around, always happy. She opened her mouth to speak, but Beast Boy beat her to it.

"It's not easy being green, Rae. People would look at me, point, laugh. Some would even make comments. I would walk past and I could see the look on their face, hear everything they said. But some were a bit sicker than others." Raising his sleeve up, Raven looked down and gasped. All over his skin there were scars and burn marks. Some could easily have been from recent fights, but Raven could tell that most of them were years old.

Beast Boy examined Raven's face. Her eyes had widened and her mouth had opened slightly. He wasn't even sure why he was sharing this with her. He had spent years covering the disfigurations, and yet, she had seen them after one question. Shaking his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts, Beast Boy pulled his sleeve back down, and stood up.

"Thanks for everything Rae, but right now I think I need to be alone."

Beast Boy turned around and took a step, but a hand had grabbed his arm, stopping him from moving any further. Surprised, Beast Boy turned his head and saw that Raven had a firm grip on his arm.

Raven was just as surprised as Beast Boy. She didn't even mean to reach out, but her fingers had wrapped around Beast Boy's arm and were now refusing to let go. Looking up, Raven locked eyes with Beast Boy. Their faces were so close that an identical blush appeared on both their cheeks, causing them both to look away, willing it down.

"Beast Boy, what happened to you?"

The question had not meant to pass her lips, but Raven's curiosity got the better of her. The blush died down from Beast Boy's face and he gently pulled his arm away.

"I don't want to tell you Rae, but maybe one day."

Beast Boy turned and walked for the door, turning at the last second to look at Raven. Their eyes locked again, and Beast Boy mouthed a quick 'Thank you' before walking through the door. Despite herself, a small smile spread across her face, thinking about Beast Boy's words. Her smile disappeared when, out of nowhere, anger started boiling inside her. At that moment, she wanted nothing more than to hunt down the ones that had hurt Beast Boy, and make them pay. Huffing in annoyance over her mood swing, Raven opened a portal to her room. She needed to get to her mirror and figure out what was going on in there.

In one of the corridors of the tower, Beast Boy was in his own little world. He had been thinking about his time on the roof, but as soon as he got to the part where Raven had grabbed his arm he had stopped. There had been something in her eyes, beyond the concern. Something he couldn't identify. Shaking his head, Beast Boy continued walking, before a thought randomly appeared in his mind.

_'She's beautiful.'_

Beast Boy almost yelped as he turned around. It had been his own thought, of that he was sure. But then again, It had been his own thought. Never had he thought of Raven like that before, but the more he did think about it, the more he realised he was right. Shaking his head almost violently, Beast Boy sighed. _'I need some rest, I'm going insane.'_

Beast Boy had arrived in his room, and without removing any clothing flopped down on the bed. He felt exhausted all of a sudden, like he hadn't slept in days. Closing his eyes, his mind wandered over to Raven again. Her eyes, her hair, her bod-

Beast Boy slapped himself across the face. "No!" He scolded. "No thinking of Raven like that! She'll kill me if she finds out." Closing his eyes again, he forced himself to think of other things, any other things. Eventually, he managed to get to sleep.

His dreams were a bit more purple than usual that day.

**XxX**

Strike walked through the hallways of Titans Tower. He was munching on an apple when he came across the garage. Inside, Cyborg was busy working on his car. Strike almost laughed at the way Cyborg muttered kind words to the automobile, caressing the hood in a loving manner. Clearing his throat loudly in the doorway, he smirked as Cyborg jumped a good few meters away from the T-Car.

"Uh... hey Strike! Before you ask it's not what it looks like!"

"Oh, I know it's not." Strike said mockingly.

"Heh...uh...what can I do for you?" Cyborg asked, his face flushing heavily.

Strike bit the last of his apple from the core, incinerating it with a small bolt of lightning. The ashes of the unfortunate core floated to the ground as Strike swallowed, directing his attention back to the half robot.

"I wanted to apologise for my behaviour down in the med bay."

Cyborg, who had been watching the ashes float to the ground, registered Strike's words with a wave of his hand.

"Don't worry about it, man. Like, you're probably going to have to apologise to Robin before he starts trying to shun you completely or something, but as far as I'm concerned Bird-Boy started it."

"That's probably not a good way to think about your leader."

Cyborg shrugged. "Eh, he's way too paranoid. Sometimes it's annoying."

"Isn't that kind of his job?"

"Doesn't make it any less annoying."

Cyborg and Strike laughed lightly, before Cyborg went back to his work on the T-Car. Every now and then, Strike would hand him a tool or cut something with a bolt of lightning, but otherwise everything was silent. Strike would probably have left, but he could that Cyborg had something he wanted to talk about. Eventually, Cyborg wiped his hands on a cloth and sat down, indicating that Strike join him. Strike sat, cross-legged on the ground whilst Cyborg cleared his throat.

"Look, you said that you know everything about us because of your telepathy, right?"

"Yes. I can't turn it off. My race does not have that capability."

"Right... well, when you said you know everything, does that mean that you've seen everything as well?"

"Yes. I have seen everything that is in your head. I'm not planning on telling anyone, if thats what you're concerned about."

"No! Well, kinda. But still, it's just... I've been through some stuff, ya know? Bad stuff. I don't want them to know about it. I don't want them to worry or pity me or something, yeah?"

Strike nodded his head, his face serious again. "I get it. You know, you're not the only one on your team that has a few things they've never told anyone. Hell, you're probably one of the better off ones."

Cyborg looked up sharply, his human eye narrowed. "Better off?! I'm half metal, dude!"

"Yeah, but you're on a team with a half demon and someone who is completely green."

Cyborg's face softened. "BB? Nah way man, he musta had a good life. He's way too upbeat."

"You'd be surprised..." Strike mumbled under his breath. Cyborg didn't hear him, and continued on.

"OK, well, second thing. You said in your little rant in the med bay that you only came to Jump to ask a big favour from someone on this team, and I have a sneaking suspicion that it's me."

Strike raised an eyebrow. "How did you know that?" He asked, sounding slightly impressed.

"I don't know, just a feeling. So anyway, what do you wanna ask?"

"Ah. Right. Well," Strike started, sounding rather unsure of himself. "As I told you, my people do not have the capability to turn off our telepathy. So I was hopeful that with your technology and my magic that a solution could be found?"

Cyborg raised an eyebrow. "Magic? What race are you?"

"Not important right now. Now, what do you say? Will you help me?"

Cyborg thought for a second, before a wide grin broke out across his face. "Sure I'll help you. I've never got the chance to work with magic, this could be fun."

Strike face broke into a grin similar to Cyborgs, and he took his outstretched hand. "No have no idea what that means to me." He said, shaking his hand.

"Hey man," Cyborg said, "don't forget that you saved us. We owe you one, so this can be us getting even."

Strike laughed. "Fair enough. Now if you'll excuse me, something tells me that I should go find Robin and straighten some stuff out."

Cyborg stood up, brushing himself off. "You do that, 'cos I think that you'll be hanging around whilst I draw up some blueprints, and I don't want him to be angry the entire time."

Strike stood up as well, shaking a bit of dirt from his sleeve. "Got a point. See you 'round. And thanks again." Strike began walking for the door, but stopped right in the doorway. Turning back, he addressed Cyborg once again.

"Why are you trusting me like this?"

Cyborg looked at Strike and shrugged his shoulders. "What can I say, man? Got a feeling."

Shaking his head, Strike walked through the door. Cyborg watched him go, before reaching under the hood of his car once again.

**XxX**

Strike walked through the Tower, only bumping into Starfire in the corridors. She had pointed him in the right direction to Robin, and asked him if he had seen Silkie. After she had flown off, Strike set off towards the kitchen, where Robin was currently sitting, pouting.

Strike walked through the doors, and Robin looked up to see him. He made to stand up, but Strike motioned back towards the table, before taking a seat himself. Robin sat back down at the table, glaring wearily across it at Strike.

Strike sighed, sounding exasperated, before looking over at Robin. "You can take your hand away from the explosive discs, Robin. I'm not going to attack you and they wouldn't do that much either way."

Robin flinched, before putting both his hands on the table top. Knowing he wouldn't say anything anytime soon, Strike decided to go first.

"Look, I want to apologise for what I did and said. Pasts can be a touchy subject, you should know."

Glancing up from the table, Robin looked at Strike. He looked torn between saying something and walking out, before Starfire's words replayed in his mind.

"Yeah, I'm sorry too. You were right, I was being a bit of a hypocrite. But I still want to know some things about your past."

The tone was joking, but Strike seemed deep in thought. His brow furrowed, and Robin looked on, quite uncertain. Finally, Strike looked directly at the Boy Wonder with a grin on his face.

"How about we make a deal?"

Robin, despite himself, looked interested. "Go on."

"Well, ever since a certain blond geomancer that shall remain unnamed was through here, you've had some trust issues." Robin visibly winced at the mention of Terra, but Strike didn't seem to notice. "So, if you and your entire team are willing to reveal your pasts to each other in one go, I'll tell you all my story."

Robin looked more than slightly disbelieving. "Not that I don't trust you or anything-"

"You don't." Strike pointed out.

"Fine, I don't really trust you and now you want to know everything about everyone on my team?"

"I already know everything about everyone on your team. I'm suggesting this because it will help."

Robin closed his mouth and thought about what Strike had said. Yes, ever since Terra had run off to Slade they had been a bit apprehensive when it came to trusting people. They had already forgiven her after she had sacrificed herself for the city, but she had damaged them all. Beast Boy especially. And Strike was also telling the truth about knowing everything about them. He had admitted to being a telepath and had used Robin's real name. Robin was already convinced of that. He looked up and saw that Strike had a serious look on his face.

"You need to take off the mask Robin. For all your friends."

Robin seriously considered the bargain. He had wanted to take off the mask and reveal his identity to his friends long ago, but never had the perfect chance arisen. And now Strike was giving him both an opportunity and another thing he wanted, a solution to a mystery. Looking back at Strike, he raised his hand.

"If I can convince my team to do this, then you have yourself a deal."

Strike took Robin's hand and shook it, then asked in a slightly less serious tone, "We good?"

Robin smirked. "Yeah, all forgiven."

"Good."

Robin and Strike let go, and they both sat in silence. Robin was going over plans on how to ask his team to reveal their pasts, and Strike couldn't resist poking a little fun.

"I'm sure that once Starfire sees your handsome face she wont hesitate to kiss you."

Robin's face turned an interesting shade of red, and Strike began laughing. Before anything else could happen, the doors slid open.

Robin managed to fight the blush from his face, as Cyborg, Starfire and a recently awakened Beast Boy all walked in, acknowledging their leader and Strike. Beast Boy waved at Robin, before his eyes settled on Strike.

"Uh, who are you?"

**XxX**

Raven landed with an "Oomph!" On a large floating rock within her mindscape. She had been so preoccupied with her thoughts on Beast Boy that she had failed to realise she was falling until she had landed, quite painfully, on her rear end.

"I need to make a less painful way in here..." Raven grumbled, getting to her feet. She hated having to visit her mind, and having to talk to her many different emoticlones. She didn't come here often, and she would normally try not to for as long as possible should there have been a problem. But this time was different. This time she wanted answers.

"Knowledge! Where the hell are you?!" Raven yelled. She could express her emotions freely within her own mind, and she saw no reason to be kind to her other halves. They were her, after all.

Within a second, eight different cloaked Ravens had risen through the ground. The one that was in a yellow cloak stepped forward.

"How can I help you today?" Knowledge asked, pushing her glasses up slightly.

"You know damn well how you can help me today." Raven growled. "What is happening between Beast Boy and myself?"

Knowledge looked at Raven, shaking her head slightly. "I'm sorry Raven, but that is not exactly my area of expertise."

"Not you area of expertise?" Raven asked incredulously. "You're my intelligence and this is my mind. How is it not your area of expertise?"

Knowledge blinked, her eyes magnified slightly by her glasses, giving her an owlish look. "These sensations are new to you, and are therefore new to me. Without any past experience or information, there is simply nothing I can tell you about them."

Raven rolled her eyes, clearly annoyed. As direct as Knowledge was, she could be infuriating at times. "Well, point me in the direction of the emotion giving me these feelings. You can at least do that, right?"

Ignoring the sarcastic tone in Raven's voice, Knowledge replied with a "Please wait one moment," before calling all of the other emoticlones over. Speaking in a hushed voice so that Raven could not hear, Knowledge addressed them all.

"Should we tell her?"

"Are you kidding?" Brave asked. "She would totally freak out."

"Y-Yes, b-but," Timid started hesitantly. "She has a r-right to know."

"'Course she has a right to know, you chicken. It's her head, and her feelings." Rude commented, finishing off her declaration with a burp.

"Leave her alone, you pig. We have enough problems to deal with." Rage snapped, glaring at Rude.

"Now now Ragey, don't get too angry. You'll have to be strung up in chains again if you do." Happy giggled, not even batting an eyelash when Rage snarled at her.

"We have no way of knowing how she will take this information. It might be better to leave her to figure it out on her own." Wisdom said, completely ignoring Happy and Rage.

"Leave her to figure it out?" Affection said, looking shattered. "We can't do that! She'll never figure it out and if by some miracle she does then all she will do is deny the fact that she is falling in love with Beast Boy!"

"That she is falling in love with who?!" Raven asked, her eyes widening. She had been listening in on the whole conversation between her emotions, a mixture of annoyance and curiosity fueling her snooping.

"You're right, it might be better to let her figure it out on her own." Rude said to Wisdom, smirking. Her smirk disappeared, however, when her head was wrapped in dark magic. Raven didn't even seem to notice, her eyes had not left Affection the entire time.

"I'm falling in love with _who_?" Raven asked again, her voice considerably more dangerous then before. Affection looked slightly nervous as she opened her mouth but, to everyones surprise, Rage spoke for her.

"She said that you, and all of us, are falling for Beast Boy. Are you deaf?"

Raven's eyes narrowed at Rage, but Rage responded with a glare of her own. Eventually, Raven looked back over at Affection, who seemed to have calmed down a bit.

" I'll ignore all the questions that I don't want to know the answers to and just ask can't you love someone else?"

Affection looked back at Raven, her eyes narrowing and her head cocking in confusion. "What?"

"You're Affection. My affection. It seems only natural that these feelings originated from you. So why can't you love someone other than Beast Boy?"

Affection looked thoughtful for a second, before focusing on Raven. "What's wrong with Beast Boy?"

Raven looked around. All of her other emoticlones had confused expressions as well, except Wisdom. "I thought you were all meant to be my emotions. You mean that you can't see what's the matter with Beast Boy?"

"No." Rage said, clenching her hands so hard that her nails were creating cuts on her palms. "Enlighten us."

Raven stared at her various emoticlones, bewildered. Were they playing a trick on her? It seemed obvious to her. "He's green, he's annoying, his jokes are awful, he never knows when to leave me alone, he's too loud, he's obnoxious, he's-"

Raven's babbling was halted when a dark red tendril of magic clamped itself over her mouth. Whipping her head up, she saw Rage's hands and eyes glowing, and a look of pure anger on her face.

"That's what you think of him, is it?" She hissed, and suddenly Raven and every other one of her emotions was on high alert. Rage could easily do a lot of damage if she got out of control. "You don't like the fact that his skin is green? That's a load of crap coming from you. Your skin is grey and besides," Rage added with a sneer. "You like his skin."

Raven struggled to free her mouth, but Rage's power was too strong. After Raven's short speech Rage had gotten so angry that her powers had reached a tipping point, and she had to exert them somewhere. Nearly every bit of power she had generated had gone into that bit of energy across Raven's mouth, and she wouldn't be able to break it until Rage let her. Unfortunately for her, Rage was far from finished.

"His jokes are annoying? You like his jokes. You'll never admit it, but you do. You like that fact that he even tries to tell you jokes, which I'm surprised he still does after all the crap you've put him through." Rage continued, her eyes glowing brighter and brighter as she spoke. Timid had long since hidden behind Brave, who had an uneasy look on her face. It wasn't the fact that Rage was the one talking, she wasn't scared of her. It was the fact that she was agreeing to everything that she had said so far. The mere thought of her agreeing with Rage made her sick to her stomach.

"He's too loud and obnoxious? He's confident. He knows how to fight. He always looks out for you, even if it means that he'd get hurt." Rage went on, though her tone had become somewhat softer. All of the emotions that were present were slightly startled. None of them had expected Rage to be so passionate... ever. Raven continued to struggle, though it was obvious that she was listening to Rage's every word.

"He never knows when to leave you alone? He's the only one who tries to include you in everything. He's the one that asks you to go out with the team, he's the one who always comes to collect you when dinner is ready, he's the one who is always by your side to help you." Rage said, her voice wavering slightly. Her powers wavered along with her voice, and Raven took the opportunity to free herself from Rage's magic. The other emotions were all looking at Rage, mouths hanging open. Had that speech really just come from her?

Rude snickered loudly, causing everyone to turn to her. "Naw, that was a heartwarming speech. Leave it to Beast Boy to mess with Raven's emotions when he's not even here."

Rage glared at Rude, her trademark emotion leaking in to her veins again. "Shut it, Orange."

Rude responded with a smirk. "Make me, Crimson."

Before an all out brawl could be started, Raven cleared her throat. When she had the attention of all the emotions, and had yanked Rage's hands off of Rude's neck, she spoke.

"Be that as it may," Raven started, trying to act nonchalant even though her mind was racing with everything Rage had said. "We already tried the love thing once, remember? And that didn't end too well."

"Well, thats because you elected to completely ignore me!" Affection huffed. When she was given a questioning look from Raven, she elaborated.

"I told you from the very beginning that Malchior was nothing to us. Yet you chose to ignore me and get close to that bastard." Affection mumbled the last part of that sentence, but everyone caught it. Raven looked away, feeling slightly embarrassed and sad. Affection wasn't done. "He preyed on you, and you fell right in to his hands, all because you were too-"

"Pathetic?" Rage suggested.

"Desperate?" Happy chipped in, giggling.

"Easy?" Wisdom said with a straight face, earning her a venomous glare from Raven. When the laughter from Brave, Rude, Happy, Knowledge and Rage had quieted down, Affection continued.

"I was going to say 'lonely'." Affection said, though her voice was shaking from restrained giggles. Raven crossed her arms and gave a small "hmph!" whilst Timid looked as though she was trying to blend it to her cape. Affection, her voice stable once more, addressed Raven again.

"I told you from the beginning that Malchior was a bad choice, and I was right. Now, I'm telling you that Beast Boy is a good choice. Don't lie, Raven. We all are you and we can all feel what you do when you get close to him. It wasn't any of us that were refusing to end that hug, it was you."

Raven looked away, a hint of red colouring her cheeks. "I'm not too sure about this." She admitted, hanging her head slightly.

"Give yourself some time to think." Wisdom suggested. "If you try, you may see some qualities in Beast Boy that you like."

Raven cocked her head to the left, thinking it over. Eventually, she met Wisdom's eyes.

"Alright, I'll do it. But I want to do this on my own, which means no distractions from any of you."

All of the emoticlones nodded, and one by one they started vanishing. Rage pulled her hood over her head and prepared to teleport back to her domain, but called out to Raven before she did.

"If you screw things up then I will take control and make it right." Her tone made it not sound like a threat, but a promise. Before Raven could respond, Rage had melted through the ground, leaving her alone in her mindscape.

Raven sighed, heading towards the portal out of her mind. Reaching it, she didn't even spare a glance at the many four eyed birds that were around it. Walking right through, Raven felt her feet leave the ground. She was deposited, rather unceremoniously, from her mirror right to her bed, bouncing slightly on impact. She would have meditated, but Rage's words were playing over and over in her mind, making it impossible to concentrate. Deciding that she was thirsty, Raven left her room, heading down to the kitchen to make herself a cup of tea.

Reaching the door, Raven stopped herself from opening it. She could hear several voices on the other side, but she couldn't make out what was being said. Shrugging slightly, she pushed the button to open the doors, and made her way in to the living room.

**XxX**

**Strike's motives are uncovered, and it seems as though Raven and Beast Boy are beginning to realise their feelings for one another. Still, how will Robin convince them and the rest of his team to reveal their pasts?**

Second chapter right here. This one was difficult to write, mainly because of how crap my fortune has been recently. My entire family shares one computer and my little sister has managed to infect it with a virus. I need my own computer pronto.

I think next chapter I'll need to include a bit of RobStar, because I've definitely got some BBRae up in here.

Oh yeah, I made a Tumblr. I didn't even know what that was until a week ago, but I made one. I plan on maybe posting updates on future stories or maybe stories that are only a few hundred words long and not really worthy of this site. Either way, if you're interested the link is on my profile.

Given that my computer is injured, I have recently moved house and I can only really write at night, I'm hopeful that I can get the next chapter out within a week. Worst comes to worst before my school starts. But I'm sorry, at this point no promises. Just bear with me, please?

Feel free to leave a review, they really make writers happy. They're like verbal carnival rides. Or something. I dunno. PEACE!

_**X**_


	3. Chapter 3- Pizza Problems

Alright, chapter three. Let's see what my damaged mind can come up with now.

Imma warn ya: I'm making pretty good use of the T rating here with my swearing, nothing too bad but no asking your parents what some words mean if you don't know already.

_'These are still thoughts.'_

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. The ones that own them maintain stiff discipline. There has to be rigid structure over in the offices there. If you think you own them you need to take a long look, a long, hard look at it and go... OK who the hell gave me the script with the dick jokes?!**

**XxX**

"No."

Beast Boy and Starfire's combined voices cut through the air, considerably louder than before. Raven stopped in her tracks, surveying the kitchen area.

Robin, Starfire, Cyborg and Strike were all sitting around the table. Beast Boy was standing in front of them, his arms crossed, much like Starfire's. Robin and Cyborg looked surprised at the response, whilst Strike almost looked like he was expecting it.

"Come on, guys!" Cyborg tried, looking from Beast Boy to Starfire and back again. "I agreed. It won't be too bad, all you guys gotta do is tell us how you got to Jump and maybe how you got your powers!"

Beast Boy's grip on his forearm tightened slightly, which no one but Raven seemed to notice. She only noticed because she had been staring at Beast Boy at the time. Of course, she would have denied that should anyone have asked. Registering Cyborg's words, Raven snapped out of her trance and addressed her teammate.

"What are you talking about, Cyborg?"

Everyone in the room, except for Strike, jumped slightly. They hadn't heard her enter. Cyborg was starting to look nervous as he spoke to her.

"Well, Robin just suggested something to us. A sort of team building exercise or something." Cyborg laughed uneasily, and Raven raised an eyebrow, beckoning him to continue. "He wants us to reveal our pasts. Y'know, our time before the Titans and anything major that might have happened and such? I agreed to do it, but BB and Star are a bit less... eager." His words came out in a rush, waiting for Raven's reaction.

"Fine."

"Now Rae, before you say anything, I just want to- wait what?"

"I said 'fine'. Don't tell me you're confused, Cyborg. It was only one word."

Raven sat down, ignoring the shocked looks from Robin, Starfire and Cyborg. Beast Boy was staring at the roof, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. Strike had raised an eyebrow, but otherwise not looked up from the pear he had been eating.

"Uh," Robin started. "Raven... what?"

Rolling her eyes, Raven looked over at him. "You've already fought my biggest and darkest secret. I don't really have much left to hide after Trigon."

At the mention of Trigon, Strike gave a noticeable shiver. Noticeable enough for Cyborg to get over his own shock and look down at him.

"You OK, man? You look a little... pale."

Strike looked back up, swallowing the last of his pear. "Yeah, I'm fine." Turning to Beast Boy, Strike called out, "Come on Beast Boy, say you'll do it. Robin will take off his mask!"

"I shall join in!" Starfire said a bit too eagerly, garnering a snicker from Strike and Cyborg, a roll of the eyes from Raven and a red face from Robin. Beast Boy hadn't moved, but his grip had tightened even further on his own arm. Almost with a jolt, Raven realised that it was the arm he had shown her earlier, and right over where his hand clutched was the biggest scar that she had seen. Cyborg, having not noticed his white knuckles, decided to try again.

"Come on, BB! Everyone is going to do it, it won't be fair if you don't join in! What could have been so bad? Raven said yes, and she's got demon blood!"

Beast Boy finally looked back at the table, subconsciously rubbing his arm. "The kinds of demons I've had to face aren't the kind that live in hell..." He mumbled, though Robin managed to hear him. Throwing a concerned look at Beast Boy, he decided to change the subject, before Cyborg could say anything else. The look on Beast Boy's face was almost haunting.

"OK guys, it's getting late and I'm getting hungry. How about we go out for some pizza?"

**XxX**

The Titans all sat around their favourite round table, poring over menus. They were sitting underneath an umbrella, the storm that had settled over the city for the past few days having not let up in the slightest. Only five of them were seated, as soon after arriving Strike had announced his need to use the bathroom.

"But how will we know what you want?" Cyborg had asked him.

"Just order me anything. But if it's shit, then I'll electrocute whoever ordered it. I'll know." Strike had called over his shoulder, and as if on cue the sound of thunder rumbling assentuated his words.

So now, here our heroes sat, arguing over what pizza toppings they would have.

"Dude, asking me to eat an animal is like asking you to eat a computer! I'm a vegetarian, why don't you get that!?"

"You need some protein, your muscles are like ropes!"

"And yours creak if you don't oil them!"

"Friends..." Starfire interjected, halting Beast Boy and Cyborg's arguing. In all honesty the Titans were all happy that Beast Boy was talking to them. The entire car ride over, he had ignored all of them, only breaking his gaze from the window when Raven had taken a chance and tugged on his sleeve. They had conversed in hushed tones for the rest of the car ride. "May I suggest a compromise?"

"A what?"

Raven looked up from her menu. She hadn't really been reading it, but it gave her good cover to think. "She means meet halfway."

Cyborg crossed his arms, pouting like a small child. "Fine, but I'm not happy about this."

"I don't care."

Grumbling rude things under his breath, Cyborg called the waiter over, and placed their order of one pizza with half and half meatlovers and vegetarian toppings, and a 'Starfire Supreme'. The Titans had been to that particular pizza parlour many times before, and eventually Starfire's bizarre order had become part of the menu. It was actually quite popular with the youths, at least the ones who all wanted to make their prisoners of war reveal their country's secrets.

With their order placed, Starfire beamed at her friends. "I shall fetch the liquid refreshments!"

The Titans all looked at one another, and Beast Boy quickly stood up. "I'll help you carry them."

Robin coughed lightly. "It's alright Beast Boy, I can-"

"You can stay here because I need to talk to you about something." Cyborg cut in, his tone leaving no room for argument. Starfire looked between them slightly sadly, before shrugging and turning away. Catching the sly grin on Cyborg's face, Beast Boy threw a suspicious look over his shoulder at the robotic teen, before hurrying off after the alien princess.

Robin glared at Cyborg, making it very clear just how annoyed he was. "What do you want?" He asked, but Cyborg wasn't even paying attention to him, he was too busy staring at Raven. Glancing up from her menu again, Raven stared at her teammates, who were now both looking at her, though only one of them knew why.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer." She deadpanned. Cyborg, apparently undeterred by her monotonous tone, grinned cheekily.

"You and BB. Spill."

If Robin had been taking a drink, he would have spat it out. Raven focused her full attention on Cyborg, who was almost leaning over the table.

"Excuse me?"

Cyborg rolled his eye, then spoke in a clearly exasperated voice. "You've been staring at him ever since you came out of your room, you were the only one who he would speak to in the car, and you hugged him. Willingly. So, what is up between you two?"

Robin listened to everything Cyborg said with genuine interest. He had indeed noticed the exact same things that Cyborg had pointed out, but he hadn't read into it. Mainly because he didn't want to incur Raven's wrath.

"There is nothing going on between myself and Beast Boy. You are merely imagining things."

"Oh mm mm Rae, I didn't imagine nothing. I can get the visual files on disc and play them for you if you want?"

Raven narrowed her eyes at Cyborg dangerously. She was still trying to figure out her feelings for the green changeling, and she would have to be more subtle about it in the future, lest one of them picked up on it again. Or worse, Starfire.

Robin scratched his chin in a classic thinking pose. He was curious, but at the same time he didn't want to intrude on Raven's privacy. Eventually, his curiosity won over.

"Raven, if there is something going on between you and Beast Boy then I'm going to have to order you to tell us."

Raven narrowed her eyes further as she glared at Robin. "Good to see that you're not abusing your power as team leader there, Robin."

Robin shrugged. "Eh, it comes in handy. Now, spill."

Raven growled, thinking about her options. She could of course refuse to answer them, but that would mean them harassing her at a later date. She could turn it around on them, but she didn't want to be that cruel, no matter how much they deserved it. Sighing, she decided to tell them the truth. She wanted them off her back quickly.

"I...I don't know." She started, and immediately Cyborg and Robin were paying full attention. "I'm having these feeling for him, and they're similar to what I... thought I felt for Mal-Malchior." She stuttered mildly on the name, and Cyborg put his hand on her arm reassuringly. Smiling at him slightly, she continued. "But it's different. There's something there that wasn't before. And I still don't know exactly what I'm feeling, I don't recognise these emotions. Like in the car, I should have been happy that he wasn't talking, but instead it felt... wrong. So I spoke to him."

Cyborg chuckled lightly, his suspicions confirmed. He knew exactly what Raven was feeling that was missing before, but something was telling him to let her figure it out on her own. "Good, now that you're telling us, we can work on getting you two together!"

Raven immediately found her cheeks heating up. "Excuse me?"

Cyborg laughed, enjoying the conversation immensely. "Raven, you can't seriously tell me that you haven't noticed him staring at you."

"Well, no I haven't."

Cyborg shook his head, amused. "And here I thought you were good at reading people."

Raven glared at him, switching back to irritated mode. "What are you trying to sa-"

A large crashing noise, followed by what sounded like surging electricity blared out to the balcony. Robin stood quickly, followed closely by his teammates. The noises had come from inside the building, where Beast Boy, Starfire and Strike all were. Without pausing to look around, Robin sprinted for the door, Cyborg and Raven right on his heels.

**XxX**

Beast Boy followed after Starfire as she flew through the building. He didn't really know why he had offered to accompany her, but whilst he sat at the table, all he could think of was how trapped he felt. Every glance in his direction, every raised eyebrow at him had made him feel like he was being examined. Scrutinised. Then Cyborg had to go and start another argument...

"Friend Beast Boy? Are you the 'OK'?"

_'Crap.'_ Turning to Starfire, Beast Boy put on his trademark over-exaggerated grin as he answered.

"Of course I am, Star. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Apologies, friend. But I fear that I do not believe you."

Grin fading, and a look of confusion replacing it, Beast Boy regarded Starfire worriedly. He didn't want to have this conversation.

"Star, I'm fine. I promise."

Starfire turned away from Beast Boy, eyes shining. "Friend, I do not know why you have decided to lie to me, but I wish for you to stop."

Beast Boy was beginning to panic. A crying Starfire was not something he wanted out in public, and certainly not something that he wanted to bring back to Robin. "Star, what's wrong?"

"Besides the facts that you have refused to talk to anyone ever since Robin suggested this team building exercise, then the first thing that you said to anyone since arriving at the location for food consumption has been an argument with Cyborg? Oh, there is nothing wrong." Starfire said, showing a natural gift for sarcasm. '_Probably picked it up from Raven.'_ Beast Boy thought glumly. He needed to defuse this situation before it blew up.

"Starfire! Star. I'm OK. Seriously. I was just... thinking."

Starfire's face brightened as she turned back to Beast Boy. "Thinking about what?"

Beast Boy's jaw tightened. He hadn't thought this plan through. "I...well...uh..."

Starfire smiled, a sly smile that Cyborg would have been proud of. "Or should I say friend, thinking about **who**?"

Beast Boy took a step back. "What?"

Starfire stood up straight, her eyes dry once again. "I have noticed that friend Raven is acting most strangely towards you. She even did the hugging of you."

Beast Boy studied Starfire's happy expression with a bemused one of his own. "Star, did you plan this?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about. Now do the sharing now, please!"

Beast Boy resisted the urge to slap his own face, groan and curl into a ball. "Star, there is nothing going on between Raven and me. We're just friends. Nothing more."

Even as he spoke, Beast Boy felt something tugging inside his stomach.

_'Just friends, huh?'_

Beast Boy almost yelped, whipping his head around. However, he quickly recognised the voice in his head.

"What the hell are you doing talking?" He almost growled, being sure to keep his voice low enough so that Starfire couldn't hear him.

_'I want you to stop lying to yourself. I find it... pathetic.'_

"I don't care what you want." He snarled. "You shouldn't even be there at all."

_'On the contrary, Garfield.' _The deep voice said, laughter clearly evident, _'I'm in everyone. Everyone has a part of me in them. It's in human DNA. Some people have just... woken me up while others haven't.'_

"You're the result of a lab accident." Beast Boy spat. "You should have stayed asleep until the end."

_'Yes. I will admit that I should have. But that changes nothing. I'm here now, and like it or not I am a part of you. I am the part you ignore and wish didn't exist. Well, I am here, Garfield. And whether you like it or not I will call you out whenever you do something I don't like. And, let's face it. You're kind of a disappointment, so thats often.'_

Beast Boy ground his teeth together, ready to tear into the voice in his head, when a new one showed up.

_'Sheesh, I go to the bathroom and suddenly you start talking to yourself. Is it always this crazy 'round these parts?'_

"Strike, what are you doing?" Beast Boy asked, completely oblivious to Starfire's attempt at getting his attention.

_'I'm trying to warn you to speak to Starfire before you freak her out.'_

Starting, Beast Boy whirled back to Starfire, who was watching him with genuine concern in her eyes.

"Uh, what was that, Star?"

"I was merely asking if you could tell me what you and Raven were talking about in the car whilst we were making the journey to this place."

"Oh." For some reason, Beast Boy looked away, slightly embarrassed. "We were just, uh, talking about a, um... book."

"A book?" Beast Boy nodded. "Forgive me friend, but I was not even aware that you could read."

Looking back over at Starfire, Beast Boy gave her a look so blank it could have sent shivers down Raven's spine. Realisation dawned on her and she took a step back, babbling quickly.

"Oh forgive friend Beast Boy that merely came out of my mouth wrong I was merely implying that you do not normally reads the books and I got slightly confused and I said the wrong thing!" She finished, breathing slightly heavier. Beast Boy looked at her, before cracking a small amused smile.

"It's OK, Star." At least he was out of his mild depression.

"If I may ask, friend, what book you were dis-"

"Well well well, lookie over here boys! We have ourselves some Titans!"

Beast Boy and Starfire whipped back around. Standing at the counter, blocking the way to their drinks, was a group of five boys. They all looked to be in their teenage years, and were all between Robin and Cyborg in height. They were all ogling Starfire, which was starting to make both her and Beast Boy very uncomfortable.

One of them stepped forward, obviously the leader of their little gang. His hair had so much gel in it that it looked like it had been chisled there, and on his face was a large, very obnoxious lightning bolt tattoo. It stretched from his temple to his cheek, moving whenever he talked.

"Hey hottie. What are you doing hanging around with this weirdo?"

Starfire narrowed her eyes. She had already decided that no, she did NOT like these boys. "Weirdo? I hope that you are not referring to Beast Boy."

The boy laughed, causing most of the people around them to stop eating and look their way. These boys had a reputation around this part of town, and it was not a positive one.

"So what if I am, babe? He doesn't have a soul."

Every single person who was listening in gasped. Had he seriously just said that?

Beast Boy narrowed his eyes, a growling noise sounding in the back of his throat. "Sorry, I missed that part. Can you repeat that?"

The boy looked over at him for the first time, sneering. "You heard me, you green skinned freak. You're an animal, and everyone knows that animals don't have souls."

A green beam of light shot right past his face, burning a small dent in the wall. The boy yelped, as did the rest of his crew, before turning back to Starfire. Her eyes were lit up, and narrowed in a glare so fierce that they alone could burn a hole in the boy's faces.

"You will apologise and leave, before I make you."

Fear crossed across the boy's face, before he sneered again. Walking towards Starfire slowly, he spoke in a chilling tone.

"You're a superhero, you can't hurt us."

Starfire knew that he was right, there was no way that she could open fire on these boys unless they attacked first. At least, not whilst there were witnesses around. Still, she could keep up her act of intimidation, and hope for the best.

The boy kept advancing, walking right past Beast Boy without so much as a glance. Beast Boy started forward after him, but found himself held back by the other four boys. Obviously, they had their orders. He would have transformed, but he had the same problem as Starfire. He couldn't hurt them, not unless they started it.

Starfire kept her eyes locked on the boy, glaring at him. He didn't seem to really care, as when he got close enough, he reached out and quickly grabbed her arm, jerking her towards him. She gave a quick gasp, as she felt herself get dragged closer and closer to his face, too surprised to do anything.

"Unhand me!"

Chuckling, the boy stopped when they were about six inches apart. "Make me." He said, puckering his lips and closing his eyes. Starfire's own eyes began to glow a very bright green, which she was ready to shoot...

A gloved hand shot out in front of her face, catching the boy across the side of the head with enough force to send him stumbling a few meters away. Grasping his head in pain, he turned around and glared, only to find himself face to face with Beast Boy. Looking past him, he saw his gang, all being held down by various diners. Obviously he hadn't realised just how much trouble he was going to get himself into. The place had an item on the menu named after the girl he had just tried to force himself on, for God sakes.

"The lady said to back off." Beast Boy growled, his hands balled into fists.

Now, the boy was pissed. He had been hit, and all that he could see was red, no longer thinking what would be considered clearly for him. _'Green block cock. Green must go away.'_ Pulling out a knife that had previously been hidden in his pocket, he lunged straight for Beast Boy, swinging the knife at his chest.

The door to the bathroom slammed open with a resounding crash, and what looked like five small bolts of lightning zipped out. The first caught the boy wielding the knife by piercing through the back of his shirt, hoisting him into the air, not seeming to care when his head came in contact with the ceiling. Hard. The remaining four caught the rest of his gang in a similar way, and once all of the civilians had let go pulled them into the air in a similar manner. Strike walked calmly out of the bathroom, five bolt of lightning emanating from the fingers on one of his hands, while the other was busy pulling up his fly.

Before anyone could say anything, the door to the balcony burst open, the rest of the Titans making their way in. Each of them gasped as they took in the scene in front of them, before turning to Strike.

"What's going on here?" Robin was all business.

"They...he..." Starfire began, her voice seething with the rage that she still felt. Her eyes had dimmed, but were still glowing. Coupling that with the fact that Beast Boy was absolutely furious as well Robin quickly came to a conclusion.

"What happened?" He asked. Strike turned to look at him, a dull look on his face. "I would explain, but thats exhausting. So instead I'll do this."

Closing his fist and shutting the lightning off, all five of the boys landed with loud thuds on the floor below them. Strike gave a quick and over-exaggerated "Oopsies!" before stepping over them and walking up to the counter. He smiled at the girl who was standing behind it, and she gave a nervous look back.

"Did you get the footage?"

The girl looked at him, then down at the phone she held in her hand. "Yeah, I did."

"You started recording as soon as I asked you to?"

"Yep."

"And you can see and hear everything?"

"It's all good."

Strike nodded at her, his smile widening slightly. "Good. Can I borrow that for a second?" He asked, pointing down at her phone. The girl nodded. "Just don't break it."

Strike took the phone, nodding again. "Wouldn't dream of it."

He turned and walked back towards the Titans, then right past them, up until he was standing in front of the television that was mounted on the wall. There was a baseball game playing, but of course after what had just happened no one was watching it.

"Hey, Cyborg? Can you plug this thing into the T.V and play the video I have loaded up?" Strike called over his shoulder.

"Uh, yeah, no problem, man." Cyborg said back, looking very unsure. Walking over to Strike, he took the phone from his hand and started pulling out wires from the inside a compartment in his chest. Whilst he worked, Strike looked around at all the people who had been sitting in silence, watching.

"No one really minds if we change this, do they?"

Everyone shook their heads, and in the same moment the screen changed, now showing a picture of Beast Boy and Starfire standing at the counter, with a large 'play' arrow above them. Cyborg pushed the arrow on the screen of the phone, and the video started up.

_"Hey hottie, what are you doing hanging around with this weirdo?"_

Strike smirked. Perfect timing. On screen, both Beast Boy and Starfire turned around, and the camera zoomed out to reveal the one who had spoken.

The entire restaurant watched the incident unfold a second time, all the time wincing and grimacing at the screen with every comment. The Titans all watched in silence, never letting their eyes leave the screen.

When it reached the point of the boy lunging at Beast Boy with the knife, Raven's eyes had briefly turned red, and she had hurriedly excused herself. Beast Boy and Cyborg had exchanged worried glances, before running after her. Cyborg had seen enough, he had to go before he did something irrational.

Robin had stared at the screen, feeling more and more anger well up inside of him with every comment against Beast Boy. There was no way that these...scum were going to get away with this. They would pay for what they said about his teammate. No, his little brother. They were family. They were all family. Turning away from the screen, he made to walk towards the gang, but the gasping of an elderly lady made him stop and look back at the screen.

Turning back, he immediately had to suppress a growl. Starfire was there, being held by the arm by the leader of the gang. Their faces were far too close for his liking. His patience was further tested when he heard Starfire's angered _"Unhand me!" _followed by _"Make me."_

Resisting the overwhelming urge to draw his staff and deliver some street justice, Robin made to turn away from the screen again, only to be stopped when he saw a flash of green. Beast Boy had almost appeared out of midair, punching the boy away from Starfire. Robin was impressed by his speed, but all thought of battle technique was forgotten when he heard Beast Boy's voice.

_"The lady said to back off."_

Feeling an overwhelming need to cheer for Beast Boy, Robin looked over his shoulder at the teen in question. He was glaring hatefully at the screen. He considered saying something, but was distracted when he noticed a flash of red in Raven's direction. Raven, in turn, excused herself abruptly, and turning back to the screen Robin could see why. The knife had fallen out of the boy's hands, mere inches from Beast Boy's chest.

Righteous fury burned in Robin's own chest as he looked away from the screen. He knew the rest, he had walked in on it. Sparing a quick glance at Starfire, who seemed to be feeling something similar to him, Robin marched right towards the gang, who were being held down by lightning. Apparently at some point they had decided it would be a good time to leave and Strike hadn't taken kindly to that. The aforementioned teen stood over them, electricity flowing from his hands. There was a look on his face that Robin hadn't seen before, one of unadulterated anger.

"I hope you all like jail, because that's where you're all going."

The leader of the gang looked up at the Boy Wonder, mouth moving silently. Eventually, words managed to tumble out as the electricity around their bodies vanished.

"J-jail? You gotta be kidding, we didn't do anything!"

Strike snorted. "Oh yeah. Racism, forcing yourself onto a woman and aggravated assault are all nothing. Not to mention your pack of geniuses here all managed to become accessories to attempted murder."

The four boys all looked at each other. They hadn't realised how deep in trouble they were. The leader, however, was looking at Strike with what could only be described as animalistic rage.

"You..." He started. "You did this!"

"Uh, did I put that knife in your hand? Did I force you to force yourself on to Starfire? No I did not. Sorry, but the only thing you can blame is that little peanut in there that you call a brain."

The boy's eyebrow twitched uncontrollably. Gesturing at the screen with one hand, he stabbed the air in Strike's direction with the other. "You did this! It's your fault! I'll make you pay, I promise you that!"

Strike stopped walking, turned around and raised an eyebrow. "What was that?"

"You heard me!"

Strike and the boy stared at each other for a moment, before Strike started giggling uncontrollably. The boy's anger gave way to confusion.

"What's so funny?"

Strike stood up straight, wiping a tear from his face. "You just threatened me. Thank you so, SO much."

The boy's eyebrows dug their way further down his face. "Why are you thanking me?"

Strike chuckled a bit more, before a sinister smile graced his lips.

"You just gave me a reason."

Everyone's eyes widened when purple lightning burst into the room through the ceiling, directly hitting Strike's fist, which had been raised to the sky.

**XxX**

Raven ran out of the pizza parlour, her feet pounding hard against the ground. Stopping abruptly next to the T-Car, she took several deep breaths.

"Calm down... calm down... calm down..." She repeated softly to herself. Getting her breathing even once again, she sneaked a glance at the mirror on the door.

_'Good, no red.' _She thought, studying her eyes. She didn't even know what had gotten her so angry. She had just seen the boy swing the knife at Beast Boy, and even though all logic was telling her that he was fine and the boy would get what was coming to him, a different part was telling her exactly where to shove that logic.

"Rage, shut up." Raven said softly. "If you don't I'll put the chains back on."

Inside her mind, Raven felt Rage slowly relax, even though there was the occasional swearing. _'So this is what it's like to like someone.' _She thought to herself, a bemused smile twitching at the sides of her lips. She was careful not to use the word 'love'. She didn't love anyone that way. Not yet, anyway.

"Raven!"

Beast Boy's voice snapped her out of her own thoughts. Hastily pulling her hood back over her head, she turned to see Beast Boy and Cyborg running towards her.

"Raven? You alright, girl?" Cyborg asked, looking her up and down.

Raven nodded. "I will be, so long as we're taking them to the police."

Cyborg looked down on her, his expression still showing some concern. "You better believe that we will, but why are you out here and not in there?"

Raven's face twitched with a barely noticeable wince. How was she going to answer that? Thankfully, Beast Boy came to her rescue. As much as he wanted an answer, he could practically sense her discomfort.

"Don't worry about that, Cy. We should get back inside, they might be wondering where we are."

Cyborg looked from Raven to Beast Boy and back again. "Uh, alright. But I'm gonna want an answer la-"

Cyborg was cut off by what sounded like wind. A bolt of purple lightning hit the pizza parlour right in front of the three of them, but instead of an explosion (that only Beast Boy was expecting) it almost seemed to get absorbed. Raven, Cyborg and Beast Boy exchanged glances, before hurrying back towards the building.

**XxX**

To say that the gang was scared was an understatement. To say that they were terrified would have been close, but still no cigar. To say that they were absolutely positively petrified would have been spot on. Their leader had been arguing with the one that none of them had seen before, before the boy started laughing and was then suddenly getting struck by lightning.

Robin, who had been about to clip on a pair of handcuffs, had backed away, slightly nervous. "Strike? What are you doing? We're taking them to the police station, remember?"

Strike's hair began glowing a faint purple before looking over his shoulder at Robin. "Forget jail." The gang started looking hopeful. "Now it's personal." Their hopes fell.

Robin started protesting, but his mouth was sealed by bright yellow electricity. Ignoring his muffled arguing, Strike turned back to the gang.

"Now, normally I'm rather calm. But you have all made me very angry." His hair started glowing brighter, "You blatantly make fun of someone's skin colour." His eyes began glowing as well. "You force yourself onto a woman. No, a friend." The door burst open, Raven, Cyborg and Beast Boy all running in. Strike ignored them. "And you attempt to harm another friend in a fit of rage. If there were nothing else, then I would happily allow Robin to cart your cretinous asses off to prison. But no, you decide to top it all off by threatening me. I take that sort of thing rather seriously."

Starfire was starting to look nervous. She was no fan of these boys, but there were children around. Strike couldn't cook them here. "Friend Strike? Maybe we should take them away before you hurt someone?"

Raven was staring at Strike. Something was off, but she couldn't figure out what. She hadn't even known him a day. _'Wait, that's it! He's absorbing electricity a lot faster than earlier.'_

Strike turned to Starfire, his hair and eyes a lustrous purple. "I'm not going to hurt them, Starfire. I'm going to teach them a lesson."

Turning to look at the group of boys before him, Strike started walking slowly towards them. The leader finally snapped out of his trance of terror, backing away hastily.

"Why do you care, man? You're not a Titan!"

Strike grinned. A sinister grin that sent shivers down the boy's back.

"Well, you're right. I'm not a Titan." Purple electricity gathered in Strike's hand, before moving along to the tips of his fingers. Strike clicked his fingers on his other hand, and the electricity shot off like a sprinter at the Olympics. "But I quite like these people."

The crowd inside the pizza parlour gasped as one, shutting their eyes and recoiling away from the boys. The Titans all had their eyes on Strike. They had known him for maybe 10 hours, sure, but he didn't seem to be the type to murder a group of teenagers in a public setting. Private, maybe. But not public.

They waited. Everyone. Waited for the popping, the oozing, the screaming. But there was nothing. Hesitantly, the people gathered around the pizza parlour opened their eyes one by one. In perfect unison, they all looked back to where the boys had been standing, expecting to see puddles. The Titans looked along with them, ready to contain Strike should the need arise. As their eyes landed on the boys, everybody gasped.

The boys were all where they had been just before, with one major difference. Their heads were all surrounded by what looked like purple electricity, which seemed to have leaked in to their skulls through their ears. Strike was still smiling, but a few drops of sweat had appeared on his brow. Before anyone could get over their shock, Strike spoke.

"You know what's great about the human body?" He asked, sounding largely rhetorical. "The brain runs everything." He paused, grunting slightly. "Know what's great about the brain?" He asked, rhetorically once again. A few more sweat drops had appeared on his face. "It uses electrical signals to do just that. Know what's great about me? I can control electricity."

The group of boys stood stock still, their eyes glazed over as they drooled slightly. Ignoring the growing headache he suddenly had, Strike continued.

"Now, this is where telepathy and a little science gets fun. Pop quiz!" He called, eliciting a groan from every child in the building. "No no, this'll be fun. I promise. Now, can anyone tell me what the brain controls in your body?"

Nobody spoke. They were all too bewildered and, in some cases, disappointed that the boys were still there. One man slowly raised his hand, and Strike used his free hand to point at him.

"Yes?" The man recoiled from the outstretched finger, and Strike retracted it, giving a sheepish look.

"Sorry. Now, what is your answer?"

The man cleared his throat, feeling very unsure. "Ah, the muscles?"

Strike snapped his fingers. "Yes! Perfect!" Snapping his fingers again, the electricity connecting to the heads of the boys flickered, and they all suddenly fell flat on their face. Hastily picking themselves up from the ground in perfect synchronization, they returned to their former places, eyes still glazed.

"Now, someone else?" Strike called, Once the laughter died down. The electricity across Robin's mouth had faded, and he took the opportunity to speak to Strike.

"Strike," he snapped irratably. "This is going too far. You could damage them permanently."

"Chill, Robin." Strike said, his arms straining slightly. "This isn't the first time I've done this. Have a little faith. Now," he added, before Robin could start again, "who has another answer?"

This time, three people in the crowd raised their hands. Strike seemed to be considering them, before pointing at a middle aged woman near the wall.

"Yes, madam?"

"Um, is speech correct?"

Strike grinned. "Yes, excellent choice." Snapping his fingers, the electricity flickered again, and the boys all stood up a little strighter.

"We are hopeless, we are boorish, we are all ignoramuses who were obviously born in a barn." The boys chanted in unison, before falling over yet again. Strike was laughing, along with Beast Boy, who hadn't understood a few words in that sentence, Cyborg and the rest of the crowd. Starfire was looking quite confused, while Robin looked annoyed and Raven had raised an eyebrow in an amused manner.

"Please friends, what is this 'ignoramus'? Is it a form of animal that is normally born in a barn?"

"I'll explain later, Star." Robin huffed, glaring at Strike. Strike caught his glare, before wobbling on his feet a little. The glare on Robin's face transformed into a look of concern.

"Strike? Are you OK?"

Strike looked up and gave Robin a large grin. "Yeah, this is just really taking it out of me. OK people!" He yelled out, immediately grabbing everyone's attention, "last one. What else does the brain control?"

Almost straight away, people from the crowd began yelling out answers. They were indeed having quite a bit of fun. This had livened up the otherwise dull restaurant. Strike tried to listen to the powerful maelstrom of voices, but when he heard the perfect answer, his head snapped around.

"You there! What did you just say?"

"Uh, I said I need to relieve my bowels."

"Close enough."

Snapping his fingers once more, the electrical lines connecting the boy's heads to Strike fingers faded, and finally losing his balance, Strike began to fall sideways, only to be caught by Beast Boy. The entire building was looking down at him in concern, but their attention was ripped away when a loud, arrogant voice called out to them all.

"Like I said, you're gonna- hey whats that smell?"

Strike glanced over at the gang. They had all gotten to their feet, glaring hatefully at him. Seeing him leaning against Beast Boy, face covered in sweat and limbs slightly shaking, they must have gotten a bit of their bravado back. Still, their glares were not fierce and they were shifting around uncomfortably.

Strike laughed. "Hey, no need to get _shitty_ with me. Oh wait."

The boys all froze, and looked down slowly. Their faces quickly drained of all colour.

"Want me to call your mothers so they can come and change your nappies?" Strike continued, though his words seemed slightly forced. The crowd and Titans were silent. What was he talking about? Nappies, mothers, the boys uncomfortable stances. What was the last thing he had said he screwed around with? Bo-

Suddenly, everything clicked for everyone in the building. Silence. Complete silence. Then, someone coughed.

The laughter was uproarious as the boys all looked at each other, then waddled away towards the bathroom as quickly as possible. Even Raven was chuckling quietly, hiding everything behind her hand. Strike joined in, but the pain in his head was getting unbearable. He was spent, and he knew that as soon as he was slowly collapsing to the ground.

Beast Boy felt Strike slump against him, and turned to say something. He stopped when he saw Strike's closed eyes and pale face.

"Uh oh. Cyborg! Cy!" He said, doing his best to keep the larger boy leaning against him upright. Cyborg turned to him, tears in his human eye.

"What's up, du-" He began, still shaking from laughter. He immediately quieted when he saw Strike.

"Dude! What happened?"

"I don't know. We were laughing, then he was out of it!"

Cyborg tapped a few buttons on his arm, and slowly the laughter began to die down. By the time it was done completely the rest of the Titans had crowded around Beast Boy and Cyborg. The latter was busy running a full diagnostic of the unconscious boy. There was a small dinging noise, and Cyborg pressed another button. Reading the screen, he let out a breath he was holding.

"What's wrong with him?" Robin asked, and silently the concerned crowd behind him asked themselves the exact same thing.

"He's tired. Guess that joke he just pulled took a lot more than we thought it would."

Robin's smiled slightly, and stood up straight. The other Titans followed suit, Cyborg carrying Strike. Behind them, the crowd were all murmuring to one another. Noticing the Titans standing up, they quieted down once again, staring expectantly.

"He's alright! Don't worry! Just go back to your meals, we can handle this!" Beast Boy called out, his hands raised. Everyone in the crowd threw a few looks at each other, then slowly made their way back to their seats, all of them talking about what had just happened.

"Alright, Titans." Robin began, and immediately, all eyes, teenage or not, were on him. "Cyborg, Beast Boy, Raven. I want you to take Strike back to the tower. Take the pizza with you as well, looks like we're having takeout. Star, we're not done here. When they get out of the bathroom, we're going to take them in."

"Uh, Rob? They might be a bit young for jail." Cyborg said, shifting Strike around in his arms.

"Then they go to juvenile hall. They threatened Starfire and Beast Boy, they face their punishment. And this time in the face of the law." Robin replied.

"Alright, man. Rae, BB, let's go."

"Kay, dude."

"Rae-VEN."

The three of them walked out of the pizza parlour, Cyborg carrying Strike and Raven carrying their food and drink with her dark energy. Cyborg loaded Strike into the backseat of the T-Car, clipping him in carefully. Raven got in the passenger seat, leaving Beast Boy to sit in the back with the unconscious teen.

Just as the sounds of the T-Car driving away faded, the bathroom door opened, and five very embarrassed boys walked out. Almost immediately, everyone in the building stopped what they were doing and stared at them. Unnerved by the attention, the leader stepped forward. Robin was in front of him in a heartbeat.

"You can go quietly or make us take you." He said, a grin spread across his face before adding, "Poopypants."

The boy paled once again and, doing his best to ignore the laughter around him, walked right up to Robin and thrust his hands out, wrists facing up.

"Just do it, please!"

**XxX**

**The Titan's evening meal is turned upside down, and Strike pushes himself to his limit as a result. What will come of this?**

The third chapter. This one was a bi-atch to write. Seriously. The computer died on me nine times. _Nine _freakin times. I counted.

The pizza parlour scene was actually inspired by something I saw in real life. I wasn't involved, but I was sitting there when the fight broke out, so thats something. Of course, the Teen Titans were not there, otherwise I would have been questioning my sanity and thanking my lucky stars at the same time.

I know I said I would get some RobStar, but this scene played out in my head and I just had to write it. I apologise for all the swearing that I used, but I felt that it was necessary.

Again, I apologise for not including any RobStar like I said I would. But mark my words I will make it up to you all.

I'm still moving houses, but the computer has been set up and we already have internet (thankfully). Still, writing could be difficult for obvious reasons. Remember, I have a Tumblr for any updates etc.

Feel free to leave a review after my long-ass author note. They taste like victory covered in explosives. Hey, don't knock it till you tried it!

Peace!

_**X  
**_


	4. Chapter 4- Movie Night

Chapter four. No one will shit themselves this chapter (unfortunately).

I apologise for taking a while to update, but I've been having issues with some things that you probably don't care about anyway, so moving right along.

I decided to change the genre, because even though there is romance in this story (that's pretty much a given for every fic) I feel it belongs in adventure a bit more.

I hope you don't mind (somewhat tasteful) swearing as well as (rather) crude humour. Just saying. But yeah, Don't Google nothing.

At the end of this chapter there will be a special surprise. No spoilers, though.

_'This is me, being thoughtful.'_

**Disclaimer: I know that I don't own Teen Titans because the voice in my head told me that I didn't. It was Steve, Steve's a good guy. Not like Alberto. We do not speak of him here.**

**XxX**

Strike slowly sat up with a groan, holding his head. It felt like the monkey that normally had symbols up there had opted for a drum-kit this time. Hearing a noise from his side, he looked around, seeing Cyborg, Raven and Beast Boy all sitting at the table, eating pizza. None of them seemed to have noticed that he was awake. Slowly standing up, he wobbled slightly on his feet.

"Got a bucket anywhere? Last time this happened I got a little... a little... uh oh." Frantically looking around, his eyes found the perfect target.

The three at the table all looked up, just in time to see Strike's mad dash for the pot plant. He leapt into the air, skidding the last meter on his knees before shoving his head into the small, leafy curtain. No one had to ask what he was doing, because right after that he had started retching.

Beast Boy and Cyborg, who had gotten to their feet to help him, recoiled in disgust. Taking a few steps back towards the table, they joined Raven, who was looking at Strike with a slight mixture of concern and confusion.

"Uh, dude?" Beast Boy said, his hand in front of his own mouth. "Anything we can do to... help?"

Strike looked back out from behind the plant, his face having a slight green tinge. "Fruit... please..." was all he managed, before his cheeks swelled up and he emptied his stomach's contents into the pot. Wincing slightly, Cyborg reached behind him for the fruit bowl, grabbing out a peach, which he threw to Strike. There was no way he was going to go anywhere near him after that little display.

Without looking up, Strike caught the peach, quickly shoving it in his mouth. It was only a small one, and he had chewed and swallowed it whole, stone and all, within five seconds. The effect was instantaneous as Strike leapt back to his feet, looking down at the poor plant and giving a slight shudder.

"I'll uh... I'll clean that up as soon as I perform a full recharge."

Raven tilted her head slightly. "Full recharge? What's that?"

"Uh," Strike said, pointedly looking away. "I'm not exactly sure I want to tell you."

"Come on man." Cyborg said, trying his best not to look down at the pot. "You're gonna tell us everything eventually. Why not just answer now?"

"Because I don't want to."

"You already know everything about us, and we didn't get a say in it. What's one thing going to do?" Raven pointed out, eyebrow raised.

Strike briefly glared at Raven, before sighing and turning to look out the window.

"Alright, fine. If you really must know my body runs on electricity."

"So does mine." Cyborg said, smirking.

Strike rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Not the same. When I use too much my body kind of... shuts down."

"So does mine." Cyborg repeated, grinning.

Strike stared at Cyborg, his eyebrows drooping in a strange sort of exasperated glare. "I can make my own electricity, but I need sustenance to do so. And besides, it's a lot easier to just absorb lightning from that storm out there that follows me around everywhere I go."

Cyborg's muttering of "mine doesn't do that..." and Beast Boy's "so that's why it isn't sunny like the weatherman said it would be..." was interrupted by a familiar tune. Both Raven and Beast Boy reached for their communicators, but upon pulling them out of their pockets found them silent.

"Oh, sorry y'all, this is me." Cyborg said, pushing a flashing button on his arm. A picture filled the small screen next to it, a woman who looked equal parts happy and irritated. Her hair was pulled into two tight buns and the top tips of wings were visible at the bottom of the screen. Cyborg's face split into a grin.

"Hey, Bee. How's it going?"

Bumblebee smiled on the other end of the connection. "I'm a'ight, Sparky. How 'bout you?"

"Pretty good actually..." Cyborg said as he wandered towards the couch. Beast Boy turned to Raven and Strike, poking his tongue out with a disgusted look on his face. Strike held a hand up to his mouth to contain his laughter whilst Raven merely rolled her eyes and took a step towards the door.

"I'm going to bed. It's getting late and after that little show you gave us I believe I just lost my appetite." She said, glancing at Strike with an unimpressed look on her face. Shifting her focus, her eyes lingered on Beast Boy for a second, before she turned and walked out of the door.

Beast Boy and Strike looked at each other, before Beast Boy shrugged and turned back to the table. Starting to journey back to the pizza, he was suddenly stopped by someone grabbing onto his arm. Whipping his head back around, he came face to face with Strike.

"Uh, yeah?" He said, trying to tug his arm out of Strike's grip.

"You don't want to reveal your past to the Titans because you're afraid of what they might do or say." Strike said, his face blank. Beast Boy stopped pulling and sighed. There was no point lying to the telepath, after all.

"Of course I'm scared. You know, don'tcha? The things I've been forced to do? The things that have happened to me? What would you do if you were Robin, or Starfire, or even Raven? They wouldn't want me around anymore." Beast Boy said, his ears drooping at the last sentence.

Strike shook his head. "No, you can't believe that they will kick you out. They're your family. And, well, yeah. I don't honestly know how they would react, but you gotta have a little more faith. Trust your head, Beast Boy."

"My head is telling me to run away until you and Robin forget about that deal."

"Well then, trust your other head."

Beast Boy's head whirled back up, a look of confused horror on his face. Strike's eyes widened as his own words clicked in his brain. Bringing his free hand up, he slapped his own forehead, groaning slightly.

"Not...not like that. That came out wrong. OK, how about trusting your... instincts! Yeah, that's a good one, instincts!"

Beast Boy tilted his head slightly. "Instincts?"

"You'll figure it out later. Trust me. Oh and by the way!" He shouted, turning away from Beast Boy to face Cyborg from across the room. "I can go visit any time!"

Beast Boy raised an eyebrow, looking up at Strike. Strike simply waved his hand, dismissing the topic. "Don't worry. For now, let's eat. I'm starving!"

With a small, friendly shove, Strike guided Beast Boy back to the table. Both of them picked up a slice of pizza and started to eat. They fell into a comfortable silence, the only noises being the slight squishing as they chewed, even though they were both well aware that the other was listening in on what was left of Cyborg's conversation.

**XxX**

Cybrog grinned down at his arm. "Hey Bee, how's it going?"

"I'm a'ight, Sparky. How 'bout you?"

"Pretty good actually." Cyborg said, subconsciously moving further away from the other people in the room. Sitting down on the sofa, he leaned back and held his arm up to the air.

"That's good to hear. How about the rest of yo' team?"

"Uh," Cyborg started. "They're pretty good, ya know? We had to bust some delinquents while we had dinner, though. Little shit heads."

Bumblebee laughed. "Really? Well, I can't wait to see that one on the news."

Cyborg snorted with laughter, shaking his head slightly. "Yeah, should have seen what Strike did to 'em."

Bumblebee laughed again. "Yeah, I can imagine."

Cyborg opened his mouth to recap the events of the pizza parlour disaster, before freezing, mouth still open slightly. Regaining a small amount of composure, he regarded the screen on his arm as though it had just transformed into a potato. "Uh, Bee?"

Bumblebee looked up, her eyebrows furrowing slightly in confusion. "What's up, Sparky?"

"Why didn't you ask who Strike is? Do you know him?"

Bumblebee suddenly averted her eyes, biting her lip nervously. "Uh, well..."

"Bee..."

"Uh..."

"Tell me..."

"Uh..."

"Beeeeeeee..."

"Alright, fine! I spoke to Argent, OK?"

Cyborg smirked, snapping his fingers playfully. "Argent, of course."

Bumblebee nodded, before smiling innocently. "Why, yes Sparky. Brilliant detective work. Now, why did you not tell me of this new Titan that is staying in your tower?"

Cyborg shook his head. "He's not a Titan. He's a...visitor."

"'He's a visitor'?" Bumblebee repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Whatdaya mean? He's obviously got the powers, and did you see what he did to Dr. Light? Argent took a picture and it's exploded like crazy. Word has it that it made even Batman laugh."

Cyborg nodded. "Yeah, but he hasn't really shown any interest in being a hero and- wait, did you say Batman laughed?"

"That's what the rumour is." Bumblebee said, smirking. "So, now the real reason I called. You reckon that Robin will let me take Strike away from you and bring him here for a visit? Me and my team all wanna meet him."

"I knew you weren't just callin' for social reasons." Cyborg said, a smirk of his own playing out across his face. "But yeah, I'm not too sure about that. I mean, we've only known him less than a day, plus I don't know if Robin will really want him-"

"-And by the way!" Strike suddenly shouted from the other side of the room. "I can go visit anytime!"

Bumblebee cleared her throat, grinning."That was Strike?" When she got a small, hesitant nod of confirmation she continued . "Well, there ya go."

"I don't know, Bee." Cyborg muttered, trying to ignore the smug look on Bumblebee's face.

"Come on, what's the worst that could happen? You're letting him stay inside your house, for God sakes. My team and I just wanna meet the guy. From what Argent described he was a real cutie!"

Cyborg shook his head at Bumblebee's mock swooning, before another thought hit him. "Bee, did you call Argent?"

Bumblebee shook her head. "Uh, no."

Cyborg groaned slightly. "So she called you?"

"Yeah... what's the point you're gettin' at, Sparky?"

"Were you the first person she called? Or the only person?"

"What are you..." Something clicked inside Bumblebee's brain. "You're sayin' that..."

"That the whole Titan network will probably find out about him even though Robin no doubt wants to keep the fact that he's staying here quiet. Yeah, that's what I'm sayin'."

Bumblebee thought for a second, before her lips split in a grin. "Robin needs to learn to chill, Sparky. So Strike ain't there to stay? Don't mean he can't be a friend, now does it?"

"I don't think Robin is gonna enjoy the attention."

"You gotta stop worrying 'bout that, Sparky. You'll get wrinkles." Bumblebee said teasingly. "Just remember, when you're done with him just throw him in a box with some airholes or something and ship him over. Just 'cos he ain't a superhero doesn't mean I want him to disappear without meeting us."

Cyborg shook his head, smiling at her joking tone. "Alright, fine. I will. But only if you answer me somethin'."

"Shoot."

"Why do you wanna meet him so bad?"

Bumblebee looked Cyborg in the eyes, and he noted with some fear that all hints of joking had vanished. "Honestly? I wanna meet him so bad because he saved you, Sparky. I want to meet the guy that saved your life, even if all I get to say is 'thanks'."

A "Naaaawwww" was heard from the table as Cyborg's face slowly gained a slight red hue. Throwing a brief glare over his shoulder at Beast Boy and Strike, who were both shaking with laughter, he looked hastily back towards the small screen. Suddenly, a large grin spread across his face, right below his blush.

"That's...real sweet, Bee."

Bumblebee averted her eyes, her cheeks as red as Cyborg's. "Shut it, Sparky. Remember, the team wants to meet him as well."

Strike snorted with laughter, only to quickly take cover under the table from the blue beam of sound that Cyborg had shot behind himself. His eyes never left the screen.

"Alright, well, you probably got some stuff to do and I'm kinda hungry so... see ya next time?" He said, trying to ignore the giggling behind him.

"Yeah, sure. See ya Sparky."

Bumblebee hung up rather quickly, and Cyborg stood up, making his way over to the table. Strike had the decency to hold in his laughter, while Beast Boy had nearly passed out from lack of oxygen. Cyborg avoided their eyes, desperate to avoid any berating, and picked up a slice of pizza.

"So how'd it go?" Strike asked as nonchalantly as possible, taking a sip of water.

"R-Romeo." Beast Boy gasped out, launching into a brand new fit of giggles. Cyborg's face glowed a brighter red whilst Strike made a valiant effort to swallow his drink, failing monumentally. The water sailed through the air, scoring a direct hit. Cyborg wiped his face with a paper napkin on the table, depositing it in the bin on his way back to the couch. Beast Boy finally recovered, wiping a tear from his eye.

"I thought it was kinda cute!" He called out to Cyborg, who hunched his shoulder and sat down, snatching the remote up.

Beast Boy and Strike looked at each other, then burst into laughter all over again. The whirlwind of thoughts flying through Cyborg's head only made Strike laugh harder as he picked up another slice of pizza, which he didn't dare start to eat for fear of choking.

**XxX**

Robin's feet gently touched the roof, his hand still clasped in Starfire's. The alien had flown them from the police station all the way back to the tower, though unbeknown to Robin she had gone slower than she could have. Starfire descended on to the roof as well, her hand still in Robin's. Robin looked up, nodding to Starfire and offering a smile.

"Thanks for the lift, Star." He said, his smile widening.

"I welcome you." Starfire said, looking down shyly. Her eyes fell on their joined hands, and she blushed slightly. Robin turned and took a step, but stopped and turned back to Starfire when he felt a small tug on his hand.

"What is it, Star?" Robin asked, turning back around to face her.

"Robin..." Starfire started. It was dark, the only light coming from the moon that was high in the sky. Starfire looked up at Robin, her eyes shining in the limited light._ 'I must tell him now.'_

Robin looked back at Starfire, his eyes widening slightly from behind his mask. The way Starfire was standing, with her eyes shining and her hair blowing slightly in the breeze. She looked...what was the word he was looking for? What were words? Why was he feeling lightheaded? Why were his lungs hurting?

"Robin! May you please breathe now? You are turning the colour blue!" Starfire said urgently. As if he had been slapped in the face, Robin snapped out of his trance, sucking in a massive gulp of air. _'Breathtaking...'_

Robin coughed nervously, shaking his head to clear his thoughts. "Sorry, Star. Um, were you, uh, going to say something?"

"Oh." Starfire sighed, both from relief and nervousness. " Uh, yes. Robin, I...I..."

Robin was leaning forward slightly, his mask stretching as his eyes got bigger and bigger. _'There's no way. No way that she's going to say what I think she is.'_

Starfire was struggling. She was trying to get the words out, but they just wouldn't budge. _'I must do this now, I may not get a better chance.'_

"Robin, I am worried about friend Strike." Starfire blurted out, silently cursing herself in Tamaranean. Why did she always get so nervous?

Robin lost balance, falling right past Starfire and landing face first on the ground. Quickly springing back to his feet, he coughed and turned around. _'I really thought she was gonna...'_

"Yeah, so am I, Star." He said, turning back and offering Starfire a small smile. "But Cyborg said that he would fine with some rest, remember?"

Starfire returned his smile with a bigger one, before grabbing onto Robin's arm. "Yes, I think that you are correct. Now, shall we go and consume our food with our friends?"

Without waiting for an answer, or giving herself time to reflect on her failure, Starfire took off, dragging a surprised and heavily blushing Robin along with her.

**XxX**

The door to the ops center swished open, Robin, Starfire and Raven all stepping through. On their way through the tower, Robin and Starfire had run into Raven, and Starfire had managed to convince them to have a movie night. Raven had agreed, so long as she was allowed to take a book in, whilst Robin had said yes almost immediately. All three of them stopped when they took in the scene in front of them.

Strike was on the ground, laughing so hard that tears were rolling down his face. He didn't even have the strength to raise a hand to greet the others. Beast Boy was right next to him, gasping desperately as his own convulsions of laughter shook his body. Cyborg was kneeling down near the wall, his head seeming to be stuck in it.

"I'm trapped!" He yelled, only causing Strike to laugh even harder. The others who had just entered looked once around the room, wondering what had happened.

"Dude!" Beast Boy managed, the rest of his speech almost too difficult to distinguish. "Just 'cos you saw a mouse and tried to shoot it, doesn't mean that you should try to follow it behind the wall!"

The silence that followed was shattered by a camera click. Everyone turned to see Raven, standing beside Cyborg, documenting his unfortunate position. Raven looked back up, raising an eyebrow at all the inquisitive staring.

"What?" She asked, slipping the camera back inside her cloak. Beast Boy looked as though he had just swallowed his tongue, before spraying spit everywhere as he started laughing again. Robin and Starfire, both failing to contain their own laughter, approached Cyborg, one on each side. With a nod, they both grabbed on to Cyborg's body, heaving his head out of the wall.

Cyborg stood up and looked around. Strike was still on the floor. He hadn't even been able to say anything the second Cyborg took the running leap at the small rodent. Beast Boy looked to be in a similar situation, though slightly better. Robin and Starfire stood beside him, hands over their mouths, trying and failing to muffle their laughter. Even Raven was looking at him with amusement, biting her lip to stop a large smile from spreading across her face.

"Now, before any of you ask, it wasn't what it looked like." Cyborg said, red quickly flooding his cheeks.

"Oh, we are sorry friend. I presume that you were merely walking when you tripped into a hole in the wall that you had created moments earlier?" Starfire asked, her voice shaking from laughter and dripping with sarcasm.

"Um, something like that." Cyborg muttered, turning away. Strike seemed to have recovered somewhat at this point, propping himself up on his elbows.

"Alright, that was freakin' brilliant. Now what movie do you guys want to watch?"

Robin looked up. He had completely forgotten about the movie the second he saw what looked like Cyborg being eaten alive by the wall. "Hmm. I don't really have a suggestion. What about you guys?"

Starfire spoke up, her hand on her chin. "Perhaps friend Strike shall choose the movie?"

After receiving a few "yeah"'s, "whatever"'s and a "do I honestly look like I really care to you?" look from Raven, Starfire smiled at Strike, nodding her head.

"Alright." Strike said, looking slightly nervous. "It's been a while since I really watched a movie, but let's see what you guys have here."

Strike walked over to the wall, opening a cupboard. Just as he suspected, there were DVD's of all sorts of genres there. Picking one of them up, Strike read the cover and raised an eyebrow.

"_Explosion 2: Twinsplosions?_" He asked, fighting the urge to drop the cover and go wash his hands.

Robin shrugged. "I like action."

"He must only get turned on by fireworks then considering..." Strike mumbled to himself, though it was easily heard by everyone else in the room, who all turned to stare at him in either shock, mortification or confusion. Completely oblivious to the attention, Strike bent back down and continued searching the cupboard.

"_Pinkabetes IX, the Sequel_? _Dr. Harry Death Rally_? _Pretty Pretty Pegasus and the Rainbow... Leprechauns..._" He trailed off. Looking back up at the Titans with wide eyes, Strike gestured frantically at the cupboard.

"What kind of shit do you watch?" He asked, staring down at the cupboard in disgust. Before any of the other Titans could start, Cyborg bent down quickly and snatched up a disc. Strike hadn't insulted any of HIS movies, after all.

"What about this one?"

Strike looked down at the disc, before his breath caught in his throat and his eyes widened so far that the skin on his face threatened to rip. He stared at the disc for close to a full minute, before he looked back up at Cyborg, his mouth moving wordlessly.

"Geez, you look like you just saw a ghost." Cyborg muttered as he snatched the disc back from Strike, properly looking down at it for the first time. His eyes widened, his mouth falling open. All the colour drained from his face, his mechanical eye almost popping right out of it's socket.

Beast Boy slowly leant forward, gingerly plucking the disc from Cyborg's hand. "I don't see what's so bad about a little disc, du-" The rest of the sentence came out as a odd gargle as he looked down at the disc. His eyes widened, a discrete thin red line trailing down from both nostrils.

"Friend Beast Boy!" Starfire shouted, sounding concerned as she watched the blood trickle down his face. She shot off like a rocket, returning barely a second later with a tissue in hand. Carefully pulling the disc from his hands, Starfire handed him the tissue, then looked down at the small object in her hands. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"Friends?" Starfire started hesitantly. "What does this small circle mean when it says _Big Booty Bitches_? As far as I was aware that word is used as an insult, as well as to describe a female canine."

Robin coughed, so violently that it sent him over the back of the couch. Raven was staring wide eyed at the small disc in Starfire's hand. She was so surprised she couldn't even move.

Somewhere far off in the tower, the sound of detonating light bulbs snapped her out of her trance. Wrapping the small disc in her black aura, Raven tore it from Starfire's hand and hurled it out of the open window, where it flew an impressive distance before splashing down into the ocean.

The Titans and Strike stood and sat in silence, no-one daring to make eye contact. A small mouse scuttled across the ground, completely ignored by everyone. Finally, Strike looked up and cleared his throat.

"Now, I'm not going to point fingers at you, Cyborg. I say we forget that ever happened and watch," He paused, before swooping down and picking up another case. "This one. This completely safe, pure one..."

Without waiting for an answer, Strike opened the Blu-ray player, slamming the disc down none too gently and kicking the tray closed. Almost sprinting, Strike made his way back to the couch and leapt onto the end, balancing on the arm with ease. Throwing the remote over to Robin, he leaned back, desperate to cleanse his mind of the horrid images it had just been subjected to.

**XxX**

"Wait wait wait. What was that!?" Strike exclaimed as he jumped up. "So, they stole a dolphin and the person lost a stone. How is that detective work? They took a fish!"

"Mammal." Beast Boy corrected, yawning.

"Whatever. I don't get that movie." Strike said, stretching. It had gotten quite late at night by the time the credits were rolling, and the only thing the Titans were thinking about was bed. And maybe a snack.

"Strike." Robin suddenly said, drawing the attention of everyone in the room. "Where are you going to be staying? We have a spare room, if you want."

"Wait really?" Strike said mid yawn. "Sorry, really?"

Robin nodded. "Yeah, we should get used to having you around a little bit. Unless you have somewhere else to go."

Strike appeared to think for a moment. He didn't exactly _have_ a home, per se, but he didn't want the Titans to know that. "Yeah, that's a good idea I suppose."

Robin nodded with another yawn as one by one, each of the Titans left the ops center, heading to their rooms. The last two in the room, Strike and Cyborg, looked at each other as they stood up. Both yawning, they walked to the door. Cyborg crouched down beside it, tapping on a small keypad.

"And... security system is on. Don't set off any traps." He said jokingly, looking up at the younger boy.

Strike snorted. "Yeah, like you have traps in here."

"Y'know, just for that I'm going to put some in when you're asleep."

"Make sure they're not sharp, I don't like needles!" Strike called over his shoulder, laughing as he turned the corner.

**XxX**

Beast Boy slowly opened his eyes. He still felt tired, and looking around he could see why. It was pitch black. The sun hadn't even come up yet. He groaned and threw his head back down, intent on getting more sleep, when a low growl interrupted him.

Groggily sitting up once again, Beast Boy looked around him. There was nothing there, not even the smallest bit of light. Out of nowhere, a large eye appeared right in front of Beast Boy, shocking him.

"Wah!" He cried as he fell backwards, landing with a hard 'THUD'. Whatever owned the eye seemed to find great amusement in this, because deep laughter filled the air. Beast Boy's ears twitched slightly. He knew that voice.

"What are you doing here? What am I doing here? Where am I?!" Beast Boy asked, backing away. The Beast looked at him in amusement.

"Relax, this is just a dream. Well, I suppose you can call this your mind. I simply require a word with you."

Beast Boy calmed down slightly, before looking around. "This is my mind? Looks like Rae was right, there really is nothing in here." He mused, a mixture of laughter and sadness in his voice. The Beast laughed again, before lowering itself to his eye-level.

"No, this is not your entire mind. This is merely my...territory. And as you can see it is impossible to see anything. That is what I wish to discuss with you."

Beast Boy looked back at the animal in front of him. It wouldn't dare attack him, they were one and the same. Any injuries he sustained would also be felt by the interesting creature. Still, it had never tried openly talking before. It was normally violent threats and snarls.

"Alright. What do you want?"

"I want you to finally accept that I am a part of you." The Beast said, it's eyes unnaturally soft.

"I'm never going to do that. Who knows how much destruction you could cause? How many people could get hurt or worse because I let you out? Or-"

The Beast cut him off with a growl so loud that Beast Boy had to cover his ears. "I want you to listen, before you go running that mouth of yours. You'll go on forever and even if I am you I wouldn't wish that upon my worst enemy."

Beast Boy eyed him warily. "All my instincts are telling me to turn around and try to forget that you even exist."

It was hard to say, but it looked like The Beast was smirking. "But I am your instincts, and there is no such feeling. Running away from yourself, Garfield? Stupid and childish. To be expected. Now, before anything else I shall say that I do not want dominance of this body."

Beast Boy raised an eyebrow. "Well, what do you want?"

"I am you. And human is still without a doubt the dominant species in your blood. How do you think you manage to control all these different species' instincts? Human is always to be in charge unless that charge is handed over willingly. Now, as you, one of my greatest desires is to be accepted by everyone around me. And that will never happen if I am in control of this body. My personal biggest desire is to be able to see my territory, and as long as I remain unaccepted that shall never happen." The Beast explained.

Beast Boy nodded his head slowly. "How do you know all this?" He asked the large creature.

"I am a manifestation of everything you neglect in yourself, whether subconsciously or not. Apparently, that includes your wisdom and trust, which is something else I need to speak to you about."

Beast Boy leaned forward slightly, bracing himself for more weird news. "What is it?"

"I am not entirely sure, but I think the road to acceptance will take some time. Maybe if you started regaining parts of your personality from me piece by piece, Then it would be easier to accept me. Or course, if something monumental happens, You could just accept me in one shot. But it will have to be big."

Beast Boy nodded, a smile forming across his face. "So what you're saying is, you don't want my body, or my mind, you just want some light in here?" The Beast nodded. "And I'm guessing I have to trust you to make it work?" Another nod. "You know what, you got a deal."

The Beast smirked again, before it's eyes widened and it looked just a few feet behind Beast Boy. Spinning around, Beast Boy saw what had made the fearsome creature go mute. A small ray of light was flowing in from seemingly nowhere, easily visible in the complete blackness. The Beast stood completely still for a moment, before running right up to it.

"It's already working! The Beast cried happily. "I knew it! Now I wonder what will happen tomorrow when you tell your teammates the truth of your past."

Beast Boy froze suddenly. He had forgotten about that. He opened his mouth to complain, but The Beast beat him to it.

"I believe a certain friend told you to trust your instincts. Now, who is your instincts?" The Beast said, laughing at the expression on Beast Boy's face.

"Did Strike plan this?" Beast Boy asked, looking inquisitively at The Beast.

"Strike made this possible, he opened your mind a little, enough for me to get you here." The Beast answered. "He is able to hear me, remember?"

Beast Boy nodded. It still surprised him that he apparently did not have complete faith in his team, his family. But so long as he kept secrets from them then it was to be expected. Shifting his attention back to The Beast, Beast Boy raised an eyebrow.

"How do I get back?" He asked, looking around at the darkness that surrounded them.

"Simple." The Beast said. "You wake up."

Before Beast Boy could question what exactly his other half had meant, he saw a bright light explode into his vision.

**XxX**

**And now, the surprise. I introduce to you; The Omake!**

**Omake 1: BlackX**

The pit was deep. Her leg was bleeding quite badly. Try as she might, she just couldn't muster up the happiness required for flight. She silently cursed them all. The ones who had dug this pit, hoping to trap some form of animal. The intergalactic bounty hunters, who had injured her and forced her to crash land here. Even the bugs in the dirt, just because they were there. She hated them all, and she would get her revenge.

"Hey." A somewhat garbled voice rang out from above. "Need a hand?"

Blackfire looked up. There, kneeling down at the edge of the pit was a man, possibly a teenager, wearing a completely black suit. There were red patterns shaped like X's every here and there, and a rather crude skull mask and tattered cape.

Blackfire snorted. "I don't want a humans help." She bit out, glaring daggers at the strange male above her. He didn't seem to notice, however, because he had already leapt into the pit along with her.

"Human, huh? I take it that you're not from around here." Red X said, slowly getting down on one knee to examine her wound. Blackfire considered attacking him, but he didn't seem to be a threat and she was too tired anyway.

"This could get infected, you know. You should put something on it." Red X said, reaching behind him. Blackfire watched, amazed as he tugged on a corner of his cape, ripping it effortlessly. Wrapping it tightly around her leg, Blackfire could feel herself go weak at the knees. This was definitely no ordinary human.

"Now, we should get out of here before anyone else comes along." Red X said, holding his hand out to Blackfire. She didn't accept it.

"How do I know I can trust you? I don't even know your name." She said smugly. She could feel her wound burning and her heart thumping, but stood strong.

Red X paused for a moment, before sighing and reaching for his mask. He wanted to get her out of this hole, and fix her leg. He probably wouldn't have done this for just anyone.

"You're lucky you're so pretty." He said to her, pulling the mask from his face.

Blackfire watched with wide eyes. Normally when someone was wearing a mask when meeting someone, they kept it on. As the mask fell she took a moment to examine him. His hair, his eyes, his lips. Yep, he was no ordinary human.

"You're lucky you're so hot." She said teasingly, allowing him to grab her by the hand and slowly begin climbing out. Maybe Earth wouldn't be so bad.

"By the way." The now unmasked Red X said. "My name is Jason."

"Komand'r." Blackfire responded. "But I have a feeling that you can call me Kom."

**XxX**

**Robin seems to be accepting Strike a bit more, and Strike has gotten an invitation to visit Titans East. Plus, we learn that the feelings are mutual between Robin and Starfire, Beast Boy may have a way of controlling The Beast, and Cyborg leaves his... 'movies' lying around. What will happen next?**

And done. It's a little shorter than my other chapters, and to be honest I'm not 100% happy with it, but I left people waiting long enough.

I suppose I should explain. 'Omake' means 'Extra' in Japanese. What you read up there between Red X and Blackfire was the first Omake in this fic. Basically, I'm going to be leaving little extras at the end of my chapters, all of which are canon with this storyline. So yes, all you BlackX fans, they're a couple in this fic. They won't be showing up till way later, though.

Also, I never mentioned the best part. If you want you can come up with an Omake idea, and I'll write it. Just leave it in a review or pm it to me. I'll give a shout-out whenever I choose someone else's idea. I like this plan, because it gets people more involved and I'm not going to be able to come up with ideas for all the chapters. They can be funny, dramatic, romantic. Whatever. Just, no one is allowed to die. Got it? Alright. I think this A/N has gone on quite long enough.

I did say last chapter that due to the wait I would get two chapters out, but I only just finished this one and I'm tired as it is. I'll try, but no promises.

Also, bonus points to anyone who can guess what movie the Titans watched with Strike. Yes, it is an actual movie. Don't give me that look.

Leave a review! Then you can leave an Omake. Or feedback. 'GASP' Or both!

Peace!

_**X**_


	5. Chapter 5- Blast From The Past

Chapter five. Now this is officially the longest fic that I have written, in terms of chapters.

It's been a while since I updated, but I'm not saying sorry. I've got other shit to do with my life, this is a recreational activity for me. Yeah, I took a while, but you all survived. I doubt any of you actually died because this story wasn't updated for a little while.

Unless you did. Then you have my condolences. When I stop laughing at your pathetic gravestone.

While writing this A/N, this fic has been viewed four hundred and seventy-six times. To put that into perspective, my most viewed fic is only two chapters long and has been viewed more than seven thousand times. I never knew how unpopular OC stories apparently are. I guess that's too bad, but at least it's near half a thousand. That's an achievement.

This is slightly important, so it's underlined: I cut out Starfire's, Raven's and Cyborg's pasts from the chapter. The reasoning is because I needed to get all their pasts out of the way before next chapter, but this chapter was getting too long. They still told them, just off... camera. Robin's I included due to the fact that he's team leader, and Beast Boy's is deliciously depressing. Besides, I need Beast Boy's past in writing for a separate part of the plot. Remember, the others told their pasts, but it's not been written down. That is all.

_'Thoughts. Think 'em.'_

**Disclaimer: I own Strike, you can't have him. Unlike Teen Titans, he's mine.**

**XxX**

Strike sat alone at the table in the ops center, grumbling quietly to himself as he bit into an apricot. His neck and back were killing him, the negative thoughts associated with his temporary room leaving him with a headache. The door swished open, Cyborg strolling in. He waved to Strike, who returned it half-heartedly.

"You OK, man?" Cyborg asked as he walked into the kitchen, grabbing his apron from the wall.

"Should be soon." Strike responded. He still wasn't used to this, sitting inside at breakfast time. It hadn't happened for a while. A sharp stabbing pain suddenly shot through his head, causing him to groan and almost drop his food.

"On second thought, give me a minute." He said, pointing at himself with a single finger.

"What are you do-AH!" Cyborg yelped, almost dropping his frying pan as a small pink bolt of lightning shot out of Strike's finger, hitting him in the face.

"Don't worry." Strike said, immediately feeling the pain slowly fade away. "By the way, I'll have some of whatever you're planning on cooking."

At the mention of the word 'cooking', Cyborg's stomach let out a massive growl. "Uh, right." Cyborg said hurriedly, turning back to the stove as he realised how hungry he really was. "So how was your room?" He asked, cracking open an egg into the pan.

"Rubbish." Strike said without hesitation. Attempting to stretch his back, he winced at the pain that it caused. "It was freezing, the thoughts and memories were suffocating and the mattress felt like a damn boulder."

Cyborg nodded, trying to ignore the pink bolt of lightning that had appeared through the roof and hit Strike. "Yeah, I was expecting you to say something like that. Maybe you should refurnish."

Strike sighed in relief as he rubbed his neck. "Yeah, pretty difficult when you don't have any money."

"Just mention the mall when Starfire is around or something. Robin won't be able to resist giving you the Titan credit card."

"Did someone mention the mall of shopping!?" Starfire said, walking into the room with a slightly sweaty Robin by her side. No doubt he had been in the gym. Robin nodded at Strike and waved at Cyborg, before walking to the table, pushing a button on the coffee maker as he went.

"Yeah," Strike said, returning Robin's nod. "I need some new st-"

"May I please join you!?" Starfire asked, suddenly right in front of Strike's face. Strike recoiled slightly, startled by her sudden close proximity.

"I...guess." Strike said, still inching back slowly.

"GLORIOUS!" Starfire shouted, her hands clasped together as she floated several feet off the ground. "I shall see if friend Raven wishes to join us!"

Before anyone could say another word, Starfire flew out of the room, almost breaking the door down when it took too long to open. Strike sat in silence, trying to ignore the giggling from Cyborg and the sympathetic look that Robin was giving him.

"You know, you can always try to get out of it." Robin said, glancing at the door.

"...I can't do that. I was the one that needed to go originally. I just hope that Raven says yes." Strike said, biting into his apricot again.

"Why?" Robin asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Stop thinking that, you'll make me blush." Strike muttered, rolling his eyes. "I just don't want to suffer alone."

Cyborg snorted at the stove. "Well, that's understandable. Oh yeah, did you ever do that full recharge thing that you said you would?"

Strike's eyes grew wide before he shut them and groaned. "No, I completely forgot. I'll do that before we leave."

Cyborg sat down at the table, sliding plates in front of Robin and Strike. Setting his own down from it's precarious position on his arm, he passed out the forks that were balanced on his other arm. "What do you have to do for that?" He asked, shoving multiple pieces of bacon into his mouth.

"It's...complicated. I can let you watch if you want." Strike said, though he already knew the answer.

Cyborg grunted and nodded, too busy inhaling his food to talk. Robin muttered a "sure," before he too began eating.

The door swished open, Beast Boy walking in. He looked towards the table, his face twisting in disgust before moving towards the kitchen. Pulling a bowl and a bag of cereal out of a cupboard, he glanced back over at the table, almost gagging at the sight before him.

"You know how many animals had to die for you to eat that?" He asked, pouring soy milk over the top of his cereal. Not getting an answer, apart from some grunting and shrugging, he shook his head, grumbling inaudibly under his breath.

"Dude." Cyborg mumbled through his food, "you need some protein."

Beast Boy grabbed his bowl, not bothering to answer him as he walked towards the table, twisting a knob on the stove as he went.

"Beast Boy." Robin said, swallowing the bite he had just taken. "Bring the pot over, would you?"

Beast Boy extended one arm, sweeping the coffee pot up without looking at it. Setting it and his cereal down on the table, he leapt back over the counter, pulling out six cups and throwing five of them to the table.

"Careful!" Strike said, wrapping yellow electricity around three that had sailed a bit too far to the left, guiding them safely down to the table. Robin caught his single handed, whilst the remaining one thudded down in front of Cyborg, who merely raised an eyebrow at it before shoving another piece of bacon into his mouth.

"Sorry." Beast Boy apologised, setting down the remaining cup as the kettle on the stove started whistling. Reaching into a cupboard as he poured the boiling water, Beast Boy pulled out a teabag, throwing it into the cup before placing the kettle back on the stove and turning the knob again.

"Since when do you drink tea?" Cyborg asked, Beast Boy took a teaspoon out of a drawer and the sugar out of another cupboard, stirring a small heap of it into the cup.

"I don't. It's for Raven." Beast Boy said, resisting the urge to throw the teaspoon he was holding at Cyborg as the mechanical teen wolf-whistled.

"You're making tea for Raven?" Robin asked, his eyes narrow behind his mask. "Why would that be?"

"Don't get the wrong idea." Beast Boy grumbled, sitting back down at the table and putting the cup of tea in front of the seat beside him. "I passed Star in the hallway, and she was talking about 'friend Raven' and 'the mall of shopping'. Normally that gets Rae mad and who does she take it out on?"

"You." Cyborg and Robin said simultaneously, nodding.

"And all thoughts of a hopeless romantic gesture disappear in a flash." Strike muttered, picking up a piece of bacon. Glancing sideways, he caught Beast Boy's glare and smiled innocently.

"I'm sorry, did you want some?" Strike asked sweetly, holding the chunk of meat out to Beast Boy. Beast Boy scrunched up his face in disgust, backhanding the bacon away from him and out of Strike's hand. It sailed through the air, before it was harpooned by bright yellow electricity.

"You're so fun." Strike said teasingly, passing the coffee pot to a pouting Beast Boy. He muttered a quick "thank you," followed by a couple of insults. As Strike rolled his eyes and Cyborg got up with his now empty plate, the door swished open, Starfire flying through ecstatically.

"Friend Strike!" She shouted, suddenly right in his face. "Friend Raven is most eager to join us!"

"Yay!" Strike said uncertainly, pressing himself further back in his seat. Their noses had almost been touching.

"Starfire, I only agreed because I want to find a new book to read. You shouldn't lie." Raven said, melting up through the ground.

Starfire hopped off the table, arms crossed. "I know this, friend. But I wish for you to let me do the dreaming."

"Whatever." Was Raven's only response, before she noticed the cup of tea beside Beast Boy.

"Beast Boy, since when do you drink tea?" Raven asked, one eyebrow raised as she almost seemed to study the changeling.

"Uh." Beast Boy started. He couldn't tell if Raven was angry or just surprised. It was kind of hard to tell if she was anything. Before he could launch into an uncontrollable stuttering and possible apology fit, however, Strike came to his rescue.

"It's for you. Beast Boy made it."

Raven narrowed her eyes, looking at the tea as if it were about to come to life and attack her. "What did he do to it?"

"Relax, girl." Cyborg said from the sink, where he was washing his plate. "We watched him make it. It's safe."

Raven stared at him, as if trying to see the words hanging in the air around him, and whether they were true or not. Apparently not finding anything out of order, a dark aura surrounded the cup and lifted it to Raven's hands, where she took a cautionary sip.

"It's..." Everyone else in the room leaned forward slightly in anticipation. Raven looked away, a slight red hue on her cheeks. "Nice. Thank you, Beast Boy."

Beast Boy averted his eyes, his cheeks the same colour as Raven's. "No problem."

Strike got up from where he was sitting, taking his plate with him. He walked into the kitchen, setting the plate down next to the sink. "Those two are about as oblivious as Robin and Starfire." He muttered out of the corner of his mouth to Cyborg, who chuckled and nodded. "And maybe you and Bumblebee."

"Say what!?" Cyborg shouted down at him. Undeterred by the sudden outburst, Strike raised his voice back to above normal speaking volume.

"My bet is he made it with love!" He called out, causing Cyborg, despite what had just been said to him to laugh and Robin to roll his eyes. Beast Boy squeaked quietly and almost dived under the table, whilst Raven spat her tea back into the cup, doing her best to wipe her mouth with a sleeve and glare at Strike threateningly at the same time.

"I do not understand. How can something be made with love? I believed that love was an emotion?" Starfire asked, looking to the nearest person for confirmation.

"It's an expression, Star." Robin said, a smile on his face. "It means that he put a lot of care  
into it."

"Ah." Starfire said, snapping her fingers. "If that is the case then why do you never make anything that includes your love for me, friend Robin?"

Robin quickly let out a high pitched "eep!", his face twisting into a look of mortification. Every boy in the room, except for him, was laughing. Glancing over at the only one who could both hear and was likely to help him, Robin sent a silent plea for assistance.

"Y...you...yo..." Strike attempted as the message entered his mind, every time being interrupted by his own laughter. Giving up on talking verbally, he opted to use telepathy.

_'You're on your own.'_

Cyborg grinned down at Strike, who had fallen over and was now on the ground, laughing hysterically. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

Strike made a noise that was reminiscent to a seal barking, nodding furiously. He attempted to raise himself with his hands, but ended up clapping slowly from the ground in the kitchen.

Raven raised an eyebrow at the boy on the floor, rolling her eyes and looking away when he started clapping weakly to himself. "Attractive..." She muttered sarcastically under her breath, focusing her attention on her fearless leader. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Or, a padded back rest and a pair of puppy dog eyes. Sighing to herself, she decided to rescue him. She never knew when she would need some leverage.

"He puts love into everything he does, Starfire. He has to, he's the leader." Raven said, sitting down beside Beast Boy. "And that includes everything to do wth you. Right, Robin?"

Robin turned his wide-eyed stare on Raven, taking a second before the words clicked in his head. "Uh...yes! Yes, that is correct!"

"Smooth." Beast Boy muttered from beside Raven, throwing a spoonful of his cereal into his mouth. Raven looked over to him, just as Starfire shrugged and flew off, in search of Silkie.

"Are you feeling alright? Your emotions are a little... off." Raven said, lowering her voice to a whisper. She didn't know why she was asking, she never felt the need to before.

_'You know why, as do Robin and Cyborg.' _A small voice said smugly inside her head, earning the speaker a mental promise of letting Rage loose on them later.

Beast Boy looked back, shrugging his shoulders slightly. For whatever reason, he did not seem surprised at Raven's sudden concern for him. He was probably just relieved that he was still breathing after Strike's comment.

"'M fine. A bit ticked off at him." Beast Boy jerked a thumb in Strike's direction, where he was currently wiping tears away from his eyes. "But, that does remind me."

Beast Boy leaned over the table, clicking his fingers in front of Robin's face. "Rob!"

Snapping out of his trance completely with a jolt, Robin cleared his throat before looking over at Beast Boy. "Uh, yeah?"

"You know that...deal that you made with Strike?" Beast Boy asked, waiting for Robin to nod before continuing. "Can we do that today? I mean, like, now?"

"You want to do it?" Robin asked. "You've changed your mind?"

"For the time being." Beast Boy shrugged. "Which is why I wanna do it now, so I don't have a chance to back out."

"Well, so long as it's alright with everyone else." Robin said, eliciting nods from Raven, Cyborg and Strike, who had all been listening in on the conversation.

"Alright, as soon as Starfire gets back we'll start."

**XxX**

"Alright. I'm pretty sure that I don't need to say this, but remember. No-one in this room has not gone through some..." Strike started, scrunching his face as he thought.

"Problems?" Robin said, leaning forward slightly.

"Issues?" Starfire added, gently laying Silkie down on her lap.

"Messed up shit?" Cybrog suggested, shrugging.

"Well, they all work." Strike said, cracking a grin at the last one. "But yeah, just keep an open mind as you listen, OK?"

The Titans had all relocated to the couch as soon as Starfire flew back into the room. After a quick explanation, she had agreed to participate, but only if she could give Silkie his morning bath while the others were talking. The Titans had all agreed, until Strike had screamed "NO!" and attempted to vacate the room. It had taken a promise of confectioneries, some fruit, control over the television remote for the rest of the day AND a few threats from Raven to finally get him to stop struggling. After that, Starfire had agreed to let Silkie skip the bath for that morning. The little worm in question had been delighted.

"We'll try." Robin said, leaning against the back of the couch. Beside him, Starfire sat on the arm of the couch, Silkie spread out across her lap. On his other side, Cyborg was reclining into the couch, resting his head on the top of it. Raven was next, floating above the couch in a lotus position. Beast Boy took up the other end of the couch, looking slightly nervous, but still determined. Strike had opted to just lie down on the floor, seeing as there was not really any room left on the couch and it was more comfortable anyway. At least that was his reasoning.

"Most excellent, friends!" Starfire said, careful to not send Silkie plummeting to the ground as she clapped her hands together. "Please, who shall be doing the sharing first?"

"Well, this is Robin and Strike's idea." Raven pointed out, opening her eyes a crack. "So I nominate one of them."

Robin looked down at Strike, opening his mouth to speak when...

"I'm going last."

Robin attempted, and failed, to close his mouth as he looked down at the boy on the floor.

"But I was about to dibs last!" Robin whined, pouting as he crossed his arms.

"Hey, I'm doing this for all of you, quit moaning." Strike said, straining his neck to look up at the former protégé. "Besides, it's only been a day and I'm probably going to snap and kill Silkie soon if I have to keep all these secrets any longer. So for the sake of the mascot get that mask off."

"Yeah yeah, whatever Pikachu. I'm going." Robin muttered, getting up to stand in front of the couch. All eyes on him, Robin took a deep breath and reached for the bit of plastic that covered his face.

"Now, what I'm about to reveal could be deadly in the hands of the enemy. This could be used to get to people I know and love. Anyone could use this information to figure out the identity of Batman, or maybe even the entire league. I only wear it to make sure that the people I care about are forever protected. There is no way that we could contain it should this information be released to the pub-"

"Just take it off before I take the rest of your face with it!" Raven hissed, wrapping Robin's head in a dark aura.

"OK!" Robin squeaked, silently sighing in relief when the ability to breathe was bestowed upon him once again. Grasping his mask in one hand, Robin took a deep breath before pulling it away from his skin.

An earsplitting shriek ripped the air apart, echoing throughout the entire tower. Birds sitting in trees, children playing in the park, even the Newfu attempting to kidnap a few cows all covered their ears in pain as the loud female voice pierced the fabric of the universe around them, opening wormholes and sucking in individual planets as the natural laws of the universe all imploded upon themselves and shattered into tiny pieces...

No, wait, that was just Starfire going all fan-girly and standing up so quickly that she sent Silkie rocketing through the window.

The _closed_ window.

Silkie screamed in anguish as he plummeted down to the waves below, though it only fell on deaf ears. Starfire had flown across the room, almost sending herself and Robin towards the ocean as well when she wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" She squealed, so loudly that Beast Boy's ears started bleeding. The green teen hadn't seemed to notice, however, because he was currently slumped over on Raven's shoulder, having been knocked out by the first scream. Strike was looking up at him, concerned, and Raven seemed to be slightly annoyed. The others hadn't noticed, however. They were too preoccupied with Starfire.

"OUR TEAM LEADER IS DICK GRAYSON?! _THE DICK GRAYSON!?_" Starfire shrieked, hefting Robin from the ground and spinning him around the room. "OUR LEADER ROBIN IS CONSIDERED THE HOTTEST OF EARTHLY TEENAGERS BY THE MAGAZINES?!"

Robin would have started to feel smug, but the cracking of many of his bones was distracting him. Starfire had not seemed to notice the incredible pain that her hug was putting him through, as she continued to babble excitedly.

"Oh this is most joyous to finally have you reveal your identity to us friend Robin or shall we call you friend Richard or perhaps friend Dick oh my X'hal this is-"

Raven waved her hand, wrapping Starfire's head in a black bubble of magic. The red-head kept talking, completely oblivious to both the outside world and her rapidly diminishing supply of oxygen.

"Oh man, that's better." Cyborg said, pulling his fingers out of his ears. Sparing a brief glance around the room, he sighed and reclined slightly. A small groan from beside him made him open his eyes and peer downwards. His eyes locked on to Beast Boy's small frame, still leaning against Raven.

"BB! What happened?" Cyborg cried, leaping off the couch and crouching down in front of his green friend. Hearing another small groan, he turned to see Robin lying on the floor, his arms twitching slightly.

"What the Hell happened here?" Cyborg asked, his mechanical eye darting between his two injured teammates at breakneck speed.

"Starfire." Strike and Raven said in unison, gesturing towards the still babbling alien. Strike was leaning down next to Robin, having pulled the unfortunate boy from Starfire's grasp as soon as she had loosened it. He was holding both hands out flat, pink electricity crackling from his palms.

"Raven." Strike called, not looking up as he assessed Robin's injuries. "You're going to have to take care of Beast Boy. I can't focus electricity so close to his brain, I may fry it."

To the surprise of everyone (who was conscious) in the room, Raven merely nodded, slowly guiding Beast Boy to the ground with Cyborg's help. Though she would never admit it out loud, she was worried about Beast Boy, and probably wouldn't have let Strike heal him even if he offered to.

_'Relax.' _She told herself, her hands glowing a faint bluish white glow. _'Turn that worry into energy.'_

As Raven took Beast Boy's head in her hands, Cyborg got up, quickly making his way over to Robin. He had faith in Raven, and had seen her heal injuries far worse than that. But Strike had yet to fully recharge after that prank he had pulled. Not to mention how long it had taken him to charge up when he healed them the first time, according to Raven at least.

Strike had said his body ran on electricity, but he was able to use it. Did that make the electricity his blood? Was he fighting and healing and pranking with his life force? Cyborg already knew the answer.

_'That's gruesome.' _He thought to himself, dropping down on one knee beside Robin, opposite to Strike. The young mage didn't seem to notice the large half-robot's presence, as he muttered to himself.

"Fractured collarbone, That's easy enough. Slight bruising on the spine, he's lucky with that. A few broken ribs... shit, that is way too close to the lung. This could easily have been much worse." Strike muttered to himself, concentrating as hard as he could. His hair was starting to glow pink, though Cyborg noted the distinct lack of the normally assisting lightning.

_'He must be tired.' _Cyborg thought, tapping a few buttons on his arm. A small screen lit up, Robin's body on display. Cyborg did a short once over, focusing on the areas that Strike had mentioned.

The boy had been more or less right on the money with his injury report, except that more than a few ribs were broken and that the fracture in the collarbone was a lot worse than originally thought.

_'Begs the question as to how he knew all that with just a glance.' _Cyborg thought, though he quickly rid himself of his desire to know. It probably had something to do with the electricity in Robin's brain and the signals that they were receiving from all the nerves in the assaulted body parts. Given a minute to think, Cyborg probably would have gotten the answer, but there was a much more immediate issue.

"Strike." Cyborg said sharply, startling the other boy. "You gonna be able to do this? Why ain't you calling any of that pink lightning or whatever?"

"That's what a full recharge is for." Strike responded, before answering the unasked question. "I've been pushing it this morning, with all the screwing around I've been doing. But this is serious. Robin needs help, and Raven's preoccupied. So please, step back."

Cyborg stared down at Strike, before the latter sighed an turned away. "I can hear what you want to ask, so I'll answer. I'm drained. I still have enough for this, but I'm cutting it close. A full recharge eases extra electricity in, because when I don't have enough in my system the lightning can't find me. I could end up hitting a random person, and I don't want a ticket or whatever because I struck a child down with a holy bolt. I just got lucky earlier."

Cyborg could hear the humour in the last part, but could tell Strike was still being serious.

"So please, Cyborg." Strike said, closing his eyes. His hair started glowing brighter and brighter, until he bent forward suddenly, snapping his eyes open with a sharp gasp.

Waving off the concern from Cyborg, Strike got back into a kneeling position, his eyes glowing the same colour as his hair.

"Anything I can do to help?" Cyborg asked, backing away slowly. He didn't get this far in life by walking towards the powerful lightning, after all. Besides, he had his warnings.

"Give me a soft place to collapse." Strike said, not waiting for an answer as he laid both hands on top of Robin's chest, palm down.

Cyborg watched on, soon joined by Raven and a newly awakened Beast Boy. The green teen was hobbling slightly, Raven's arm wrapped around his waist as they made their way over. They stood, silent, as Strike slowly drained away all the volts he could spare, siphoning them in to Robin's body. Unlike before, it seemed to be a slow process.

"Dudes, is it just me, or does Strike look paler?" Beast Boy asked, squinting slightly and tilting his head, as if it would make a difference.

"Well, he wasn't exactly tan when he got here, but yes. I can see your point." Raven muttered, wincing slightly as Robin started convulsing on the ground.

"Stop-no-argh-quit it-dar-fuc-sto-DAMN IT!" Strike snapped, dodging around Robin's flailing fists. With all the electricity entering him, Robin lost control of his body. Punches, kicks, slaps and an assortment of other hand and foot related attacking ideas were all thrown in random directions, only stopping when the electricity did.

"Shit-head." Strike muttered, removing his hands and attempting to stand up. He wobbled slightly on his feet, catching himself before he fell flat on his face.

"Yo, can I have a pillow?" Strike called out to the three who were watching. With a start, Raven and Beast Boy jumped apart, having watched the entire thing with their arms around one another. Neither had seemed to really notice. Cyborg shook his head as Beast Boy almost ended up in his arms, snagging a cushion from the couch and throwing it over to Strike. Strike merely watched as it landed softly on the ground beside him, before he closed his eyes and allowed his legs to give out.

Robin stretched his body, sighing as various bones popped and cracked. "Thanks, Strike."

Strike opened his eyes lazily, barely making any effort in lifting his head up. "How about instead of thanking me, you stop forcing me to waste all my energy on your dumb asses?" He asked, directing his attention towards all of them. There was no malice in his voice, though he did sound incredibly annoyed.

"Shut up and go to sleep." Cyborg said, helping Robin get to his feet. "Maybe you'll be in a better mood when you wake up. By then it'll probably be your turn to talk anyway."

"Oh, joy of fucking joys." Strike muttered, closing his eyes. His head slowly fell back down, a light snore escaping his lips.

Robin slowly pushed Cyborg away, brushing the dust off of his uniform absent mindedly. "He didn't sound too happy, did he?" He asked rhetorically, stepping back to his spot in front of the couch.

"Nope." Beast Boy, Raven and Cyborg all replied in unison. Before any of them could say anything else, however, a timid voice interrupted them from the floor.

"Excuse me, friends? Why is friend Strike asleep, and why is there blood on the side of friend Beast Boy's face?"

**XxX**

Starfire sat, her eyes glued to the floor. She hadn't been able to look any of her friends in the eye for close to half an hour now. How could she? She had hurt Robin and Beast Boy, forcing Raven and Strike to clean up the mess. Not to mention Strike WAS already hurt and she had just made it worse.

What could she do? They hadn't wanted her to sing the traditional Tamaranian song of apologies, even after it had been offered to them all at least fifty times. Maybe a pudding of sadness that was so tasty they would know how real her guilt was? She had already made multiple attempts at apologising, how much could one more hurt?

"I am very sorry, friends." She whispered, tears threatening to spill.

"Star, we've already said we're not accepting any apologies." Beast Boy said. Starfire was absolutely sure that she would never be able to feel enough joy to fly ever again at that point, until Beast Boy continued.

"You've got no reason to be sorry for. It was an accident. I mean, I probably would have squealed if you didn't beat me to it. He's _Dick Grayson_. Seriously, how many celebrities have you ever lived with, or been on a superhero team with? Yeah, you may have been a bit too loud or hugged a bit too tight, but we're fine. I can still hear, Robin can still move, Strike can still...breathe? So there's no reason you have to apologise."

"But friend Robin-"

"I'm fine, Star." Robin said. "I don't even have any bruises. See?"

Robin lifted the top part of his uniform up by the waist, showing his completely unmarked stomach. Even though the point was to reassure Starfire, all it managed to do was make her heartbeat quicken.

"But friend Strike-"

"Will be fine." Cyborg said, walking into the room. "I've taken him down to the med bay. He just needs to sleep it off. I've got an apple on his bedside table. Don't ask." He added quickly, seeing Robin raise an eyebrow.

Starfire still wasn't convinced. She may have been more worried about Robin than anyone else, but he was walking and talking. Standing up, she wrapped her arms around herself. "But he was unconscious when you-"

"Starfire." Raven suddenly said, laying a hand on the alien's shoulder. "Strike will be fine. He managed to help us before he even met us, and still had enough energy left over after healing us to punish those idiots. We are talking about a person who gets struck by lightning just to power up. So stop worrying, because you are giving me a headache."

As if to demonstrate her point, a dark aura slowly started surrounding Raven. Starfire quickly jumped away, breaking Raven's contact with her. She may not have been scared of the sorceress, but she knew better than to annoy Raven. After all, that was Beast Boy's job.

"I...I...of course, friend." Starfire sighed.

"Aw, come on Star." Cyborg said, pulling Starfire back onto the couch. "Gather round the campfire, Robin's gonna tell us a story."

"But I do not see a fire." Starfire pointed out, allowing herself to be pulled back down into a sitting position.

"It's an expression, Star." Robin said, chuckling lightly. "What do you guys wanna know? It's probably not going to be my life story."

Beast Boy shrugged, resting his feet on the table. "Well, where your folks are, how you met Batman, how you got into the superhero biz, anything that's noteworthy?" He suggested, ticking off his own suggestions in his mind.

"You know what noteworthy means?" Raven asked, sounding almost impressed.

"You know what condescending means?" Beast Boy asked back half playfully, silently thanking the Beast for the new words.

Raven blushed slightly and looked away while Robin cleared his throat. "Guys, shouldn't you all be focusing on me for this?"

Beast Boy muttered something along the lines of "attention whore..." and leant forward slightly. Raven, who had cracked a small smirk at whatever had been said, started levitating again, her legs crossed. Cyborg and Starfire were sitting normally, though they were both shifting around every few seconds.

"Well, my name is Richard Grayson, but you already knew that." Robin began, absently rubbing his eye. "My parents were John and Mary. And I...well...I grew up in a circus."

Robin stopped talking, closing his eyes as he waited for the laughter.

Silence.

Robin opened his eyes, looking up slowly. The Titans were all regarding him with serious expressions, patiently waiting for him to continue. Silently sighing gratefully, Robin continued.

"I was an acrobat, like my parents. I loved it, it almost felt like you were flying. I was probably swinging from the trapezes bafore I could walk. For about half a decade we always did routines together. We became known as the Flying Graysons.

"Then, one day when I was seven, I was 'backstage', I suppose you could call it, when I heard the circus owner. His name was Mr. Haly. Anyway, he was talking to these two guys. They looked really shifty. It was later on when I learned that they were gangsters, but at that point I just hid and listened. They were talking about protection money, or something like that. The only thing I know for sure is that Mr. Haly refused them. They told him he would be sorry, then they left."

Robin took a deep breath. He knew that he would be OK talking about the next part, but it was still a sensitive topic for him. Not seeing any sign that someone else wanted to talk, Robin decided to keep going.

"It was the late night show, the one that I was never a part of. Instead of being in bed like I should have been, I was watching my parents perform. But...someone had sabotaged the ropes. When they were swinging, they...snapped. And part of the act was they never used a safety net."

Robin looked down, breaking eye contact with his team. His voice was barely above a whisper, but it was still the loudest thing in the otherwise silent tower.

"They died. Right in front of me. I didn't know what to do, so I just stood there. Then someone else from the circus told me to leave. Pretty much threw me out of the door. When I got outside, I could hear people talking. I realised that they were the same people who were talking to Mr. Haly, so when they started walking away I followed them.

"I didn't have a plan, I didn't know what would happen. All I knew was that I wanted to pay them back. But while I was going over some ideas in my head, I got grabbed. Dragged into an alley. And that's how I met Batman."

Robin lifted his head once again, taking a deep breath. The Titans were all silent, their faces as neutral as Raven's on a bad day. There were still no tears, though Starfire in particular looked like she was close.

"He warned me that I was thinking of going up against Tony Zucco. The guy would rip me apart. But I didn't actually start listening to him until he told me how his parent died. How he became an orphan, like I had been for about half an hour."

"What'd you do?" Beast Boy asked, leaning forward even further. In fact, any further and he would have fallen off the couch.

"I asked him to train me. Help me get revenge. He agreed, and that's when I began my life as Robin. I'm not sure if he was too happy about it, but he ended up adopting me as well. So I guess I'm lovable." Robin answered, a small smile spreading across his face.

"More like tolerable." Raven muttered underneath her breath, gently floating back down to the couch.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that, and continue with my story." Robin said, staring pointedly at Raven. She merely gazed back, her face a mask of complete disinterest.

"Alright." Robin said, clearing his throat slightly. "Well, things stayed like that for a while, and it worked. I became a crime fighter, I avenged my parents, and I helped protect the world from evil. All the time I was at Batman's side. But then, one day, I got hurt. Shot."

At the mention of the word, everyone in the room winced slightly as Robin rubbed his hip. "Batman freaked. Made me stop fighting. Looking back now, it was probably only because he cared about me. But at the time I was livid. I thought he figured I was too weak. We had an argument, and that night I left Gotham.

"I drifted through a few towns, stopping a couple of muggers here and there. But then one day, when I was beating the crap out of some lowlife in Jump City, something fell from the sky, and I fought it."

Robin stopped there, throwing a smile at Starfire, who returned it shakily. "And that's that. So, who's going next?"

**XxX**

The silence in the room was almost suffocating. Cyborg had decided to go second, telling them about the accident that had killed his mother and maimed half his body, and how he had hated his father until he had died in a lab accident.

Raven had kept hers brief, considering that Trigon was basically the biggest skeleton in her closet. She had told them how what it was like growing up on Azarath, how lonely it could be, and how much better it now was on Earth.

Starfire had barely managed to keep her voice steady through hers, telling them of the many hardships being royalty had out her through, including her falling out with Blackfire and being captured by the Citadel. She had only just been able to choke out the fact that she had been forced to kill to escape, forcing Robin to let her cling to him for the remainder of her speech. By the time she had finished telling them of the experiments that she had been forced through, the capability to form words had left her. She slowly wilted to the floor, forcing Robin to come with her, where she spent the better part of ten minutes crying into his shoulder.

Robin, after some prompting from the others, had cautiously wrapped his arms around Starfire, squeezing her gently as she sobbed. The others were all looking on, thinking over what they had just heard.

"She's been forced to kill before?" Beast Boy whispered sadly, looking over at the other two on the couch.

"I never would have guessed it." Raven murmured, doing her best to block out the emotions that she was picking up through her empathy. Now would not be a good time to blow the tower up.

"Tell ya what, those Gordanian bastards ever come back here and they're gonna get it." Cyborg muttered darkly, his face twisted in barely suppressed rage. Even though they were all having different reactions, the same thought was still going through all their heads.

When Starfire had arrived on Earth, she had been escaping the Gordanians. What would have happened if they hadn't been there? Would they have captured her, only to do more, as Starfire had put it, 'unmentionable things'? Or would she have gotten away, only for the Gordanians to start destroying the city?

Any which way they looked at it, they could only come to one conclusion.

It must have been fate that the five of them had met that night.

Five teenagers, all without a family to call their own, a place to call home, had all run into each other. The meeting had gone all but smoothly, and the circumstances left a lot to be desired, but they were completely fine with the result. If they hadn't already had to face legends and myths in battle, they may have just put in down as luck, rather than divine intervention.

Starfire sniffed loudly, causing them all to shift their attention to her. Robin was standing up again, his arms still around Starfire. He almost seemed to be holding her up.

"I apologise, friends." Starfire said weakly, rubbing her eyes. "They are merely painful memories."

"I'm sorry, Star." Robin said, causing the alien to look back to him in surprise. "You wouldn't have had to tell us that if I didn't make this deal with Strike. I'm sorry you had to-"

"No."

Starfire's voice stopped Robin in his tracks, almost causing him to trip over. "It is true that they are painful memories, but I feel much better now that my friends know of them. In a way, I am...happy that I have told you all."

Robin regarded Starfire as though she had just grown an extra head, before his face broke into a smile. "Yeah, me too."

Starfire gave a small laugh as she allowed Robin to lead her back to the couch, his arm still around her. Beast Boy stood up at the exact same time they sat down, walking around the table to stand in front of the couch.

"Guess it's my turn, huh?" He mumbled, scratching his neck nervously.

"You're the only one left." Raven pointed out helpfully, shrugging. The amount of anxiety that was flowing off of Beast Boy was almost repulsing her away physically. Maybe some sarcasm would distract him.

Beast Boy gave her a brief blank stare, before averting his stare to the ceiling. The others waited as he seemingly muttered to himself, shifting his eyes to a new part of the roof every now and again.

"You sure about this?" He muttered, so lightly that the other Titans missed it.

_'Absolutely.' _The Beast answered, without hesitation. _'Part of me is your trust, which you have hidden from them for long enough. Trust me when I say that, Garfield. In fact, given what I am, trust yourself when I say that.'_

Beast Boy gave an annoyed sigh, before fixing his gaze back to the Titans that were sitting on the couch. They were all waiting patiently, completely silent except for a small sniff from Starfire every now and again.

"Well, I guess I'll start with my folks." Beast Boy said, standing up a little straighter. "Let's see, you guys know that my name is Garfield Logan. My parents were named Mark and Marie. They were both scientists, and I spent most of my time with them on the road.

I grew up mostly in Africa, surrounded by animals. I always loved wildlife, and with my parents' jobs we were always surrounded by it. But, one day, I was playing in the jungle by myself when I came across this really awesome animal. A green monkey."

Beast Boy's mouth twisted itself into a bitter frown. "The stupid thing. All I wanted to do was pat it, and it bit me. I blacked out, and the next thing I knew I'm waking up back at our campsite in a local village. I got sick from it, but nobody knew how serious it would end up.

"My mother thought it was just normal cold or something, So she just told me to stay in bed and sleep it off. But when I kept getting worse and worse, my dad gave me a once over. Turns out I had Sakutia."

Within a blink of an eye, Cyborg's mechanical brain began a search for the new term. In under a second, a long stream of information appeared in his eye, Cyborg giving it a quick once over before interrupting.

"Dude, Sakutia is deadly to humans. Only animals can survive it, but it turns their hair and skin green." Cyborg said, consulting the complex list of words that had appeared to him only. "How'd you live? It's like a 1% chance of survival, maybe less."

Beast Boy nodded, silently grateful for the distraction. "Yeah, the locals warned us about it. They were pretty shocked when my skin changed colour. I probably wouldn't have lived through it, but my dad saved me.

"He'd been working on a special serum that could cure any animal of any disease, and he was close. It was untested, but they were desperate. Far as I know, it contained the D.N.A of all the animals on Earth, or at least enough so that anything that was missing could be created automatically by the serum itself. I don't know, it was pretty confusing. All I know is that's how I became part animal, and that's how I survived. The green skin is because of the disease."

Cyborg nodded, leaning back. He had never heard of the disease, and would no doubt be doing some research later.

"Well, anyway. Back on track, I got powers. It was hard at first, but I was learning real slowly. Then my mother suggested that we go for a ride down a river, on a raft that my dad built.

"The river was... violent. Really, really bad. But that wasn't the worst part. We took a wrong turn, and ended up drifting towards a waterfall. My parents knew it, and they told me they wanted to play a game. Just transform and fly. Those were the rules. I was about...five? Yeah, that sounds about it. Anyway, they told me that they wanted me to test my powers, then they hugged me and told me that they loved me. I didn't get it, So I just turned into a pidgeon and flew up into a tree. When I turned around, they were waving and hugging, then...they went over."

Starfire gasped quietly, while the others closed their eyes. He had watched his parents die. Just like Robin. He had been there.

"I should have done something. I should have turned into something bigger. But I couldn't. I was just a stupid little kid who was too dumb to save his parents." Beast Boy growled, his hands balled into fists so tightly that his fingernails were stabbing his palms through his gloves.

"Anyway." Beast Boy said, forcing himself to calm down slightly. "I was on my own, until the courts told me that my uncle would be my new guardian. I was OK with it, until I found out he hated me, and was only after money. So, he sold me into a lab as a test subject."

With only a moments hesitation. Beast Boy grabbed the sleeve of his spandex suit, lifting it to the elbow. The many scars and burns stood out on his green skin, given that, overall, there was less visible skin than there was memory of injury.

"They would run tests on me every day." Beast Boy said, ignoring the looks or shock, horror and anger on his teammates faces. "Taking blood, testing out my tolerances, every now and again they attempted dissection. I don't know how I managed to make it so long, but that wasn't the worst part.

"What?" Robin blurted out. "Dissection wasn't the worst part? What the hell could they do that was worse?"

Beast Boy gave him a controlled gaze, his eyes looking sunken in. "Well, the weren't the most ethical group, given the human child experimentation, but some of them were more...ambitious? Yeah, that's a good word. At night, they would let me out of my cage, take the collar that they always forced me to wear off, and tell me to commit crimes."

Robin leaned back slightly, looking relatively relaxed despite the turmoil his mind was in. "What sort of crimes?"

Beast Boy dropped his gaze, settling his eyes on the floor. "All sorts of stuff. They weren't exactly shy. I would steal stuff for them, I would help them intimidate people. But the worst was the a...a..."

Beast Boy fell silent, his shoulders shaking slightly. He wasn't crying, it looked more like he was shivering. The others looked on, concerned, as Beast Boy sunk down to the floor, bringing his knees to his chest.

"Assassinations." He finally whispered, burying his face in his legs. He continued speaking, even though his voice was muffled by his limbs.

"They would make me turn into a poisonous spider, or snake. Or maybe if they had no need to leave a body it was a lion or bear. More than once they tried to make me eat the remains, to get rid of evidence. I haven't been able to look at any sort of meat since."

Beast Boy's shoulders stopped shaking as he suddenly jumped to his feet, walking towards the door. He didn't even look at the Titans as he passed the couch, opting to turn into a fly and crawl under the door rather than wait for it to open. They knew the rest. He had become part of the Doom Patrol, then quit and moved to Jump, then became a Titan. There was nothing else to say. Right now, he just needed some space.

The Titans stared at the door, completely silent. Their minds were racing, different parts of Beast Boy's speech seeming to bounce off the walls.

After close to two minutes, Robin cleared his throat, quickly gaining everyone's attention. His mask was still lying on the table, making it easy to see the intense worry etched on to his face.

"Raven." Robin said, gesturing towards the door. Without a word, Raven stood, making her way over to the door as quickly as she could.

"Rae." Cyborg said, catching her attention. The half mechanical teen hadn't moved anything other then his head, which was facing away from Raven. A single tear glided down his cheek, which he didn't bother to wipe away as he assessed the screen on his arm.

"He's on the roof. Get me a name."

Raven nodded, phasing through the door an into the corridor. The others listened as her footsteps got quieter and quieter, until they were left in silence once again.

"I'm gonna go check up on Strike." Cyborg muttered, heaving himself off the couch. Slowly making his way to the door, he rested one shoulder against the wall, giving a heavy sigh as he pushed the button.

Starfire looked back up to Robin as the doors closed. The tears in her eyes were close to spilling, and the look of concern that Robin was sporting was only making it worse. Carefully, she wrapped her arms around Robin stomach, pressing her face into his shoulder. Robin accepted the embrace, resting his cheek on top of Starfire's head as the alien started sobbing quietly.

**XxX**

**Omake 2: Skipping Stones**

**Idea by: EX3451**

"For the last time," Terra snapped, crossing her arms and turning away from her master. "I am not shaping a horse out of a boulder for you to ride in to battle!"

"Please?" Slade begged, dropping down to his knees in front of the blond. "I already bought the saddle and everything!"

"Do you have any idea how painful riding a normal horse is for a guy?" Terra asked, her nose still in the air. "Because one made of pure rock must be the same, if not worse!"

Slade got back to his feet, crossing his arms and turning away from the stubborn teenager. "Fine. What do you suggest we do?"

"How about we move into a proper base instead of a freakin cave?" Terra muttered under her breath.

"What was that, apprentice?"

"Nothing!"

Slade glanced down at her, before moving his eyes towards the small, underground lake that was near their headquarters.

"How about we skip some stones?" He asked, gesturing towards the body of water.

"Oh no." Terra said, backing away slowly. "I know how you get around stones. Not happening."

"Pleeeeeease!" Slade whined, hopping up and down on the spot. "I really wanna!"

Terra sighed exhaustedly. "Fine. But you need to control yourself."

"Fuck you! I'm always in control!" Slade screamed, breaking out into a full sprint towards the water.

Terra shook her head, before taking off after her master. She needed to make sure he didn't accidentally break anything else, after all.

_'I betrayed the Titans for this?' _She thought incredulously, before tackling Slade to the ground, trying to force the small rock that he had just picked up out of his hand.

**XxX**

**The Titans have gotten their pasts out of the way, for better or for worse. What will happen with Beast Boy? And what lies in Strike's history?**

Well, it's done. I took some liberties with the pasts in this chapter, because A: I'm too lazy to do any proper research and B: my fic, my rules. I've seen so many bloody variations in so many fics anyway, and I think I stuck to them enough. Sorry for not including all of the Titan's pasts, but this chapter is approaching 10000 words and I'm tired.

This took me a while to write, but I'm glad I managed it. I've left people waiting, but I'm sure you can get over that. I mean, it's not my problem.

Nothing to say, really. Don't expect an update any time soon, I suppose. You know, busy and all that.

Apart from that, leave a review I suppose. I could always use feedback or omake ideas.

Peace!

_**X**_


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